Miss Potter
These are the types of movies I enjoy reviewing most. They’re the ones you don’t see coming, be they big or small. They make you feel good about taking them in, even if they don’t make you “feel good,” per se. In particular, this is a movie that makes you smile. It’s a good feeling to be able to do that without having to make excuses.
Renee Zellweger plays Beatrix Potter, the author of such children’s classics as “Peter Rabbit.” In the span of his film’s 90-plus minutes, director Chris Noonan (an Oscar nominee for “Babe”) tells her story as a charming romantic comedy and mournful drama, with fanciful touches (implying her paintings were as real to her as other people were) that suit both tones, when appropriate. Her father acknowledges the artist she is and embraces her success, while her mother cannot understand that creative impulse and rejects it, more interested in pointing out her daughter’s lack of conformity to what society thinks a 30-something woman should be doing. But life has a way of surprising you, as Beatrix- who’s vowed never to marry- discovers when the publishing house who’s agreed to release “Rabbit” (albeit under the idea that it’ll die quickly) puts their least-experienced brother Norman (the breezily charming and romantic Ewan McGregor) in charge of her book; to say it goes beyond expectations is to put it lightly. Gradually, Beatrix and Norman fall in love, which doesn’t sit too well with Beatrix’s status-conscious parents.
Noonan has turned Potter’s story into a charming and touching story of a woman’s journey to independence, and in Zellweger (one of the most irresistible of actresses; this is one of her best performances), he finds a leading lady with radiant spirit and spunk to spare. She has an effortless chemistry with both McGregor and Emily Watson (as Norman’s single- and proud of it- sister; she’s a scene-stealer) that only the best actors are capable of. She makes “Miss Potter” a story worth searching out for yourself.
