Miss Potter Movie Review

"Miss Potter" is nice and enjoyable but not altogether special. The film chooses to not focus a great deal on the works of Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger), probably because they're so well known, but instead focuses on her life which is an interesting tale but the way it's presented in this film is nothing particularly dramatic or moving, yet so many of the components would be just that if they were executed in that manner. The film has a storybook quality to it to match the nature of Potter's work and is perhaps the most successful part of the film, but it's a shame that the lack of dramatic execution and the way over-the-top Victorian acting detracts from an otherwise fascinating story.

The film opens by intercutting between Potter's childhood and current life where we are reminded constantly of her strength of character and desire to indulge in her creative pursuits of drawing. Here she meets her publisher, Mr Warne (Ewan McGregor), the youngest of three brothers who run a publishing firm, and is assigned Potter's book as 'something to do' by his brothers who don't believe it will sell any copies. Ultimately, Mr Warne is enchanted by Potter's work and manages to get it in to the bookstores, turning them in to a publishing phenomenon. This part of the story is only really brisked over as the film clearly starts to focus on Potter's growing relationship with Warne. What seems odd however is that Warne seems in to her from the get go and there really isn't a chance in the story for anything to develop beyond a "that's just how it is" mentality. This is especially evident when Warne's life takes a turn for the worse and what would have been a tragic sequence of love lost by Potter, we get the feeling of a footnote. This is the best way to describe this film as a lot of the major events are tragic/joyous/moving etc. but they don't really resonate much at all.

The acting in this film is a over the top. Probably at the request of the director, the finely assembled, and otherwise fabulous cast does its best to accentuate every nuance and word to make it blatantly obvious that we're looking at upper-class Victorian people but it just doesn't ring true. Renee Zellweger does the best she can as Beatrix Potter, as does Ewan McGregor as her publisher but there's something not quite real about any of it. Potter's father, played by Bill Paterson, comes off best as the only person in her family who actually understands what she's doing with her life.

The cinematography is the major highlight of the film. As "Miss Potter" is concerned with the telling of her life and her successes as a children's storybook author, the images contain a storybook beauty themselves. Right from the start, the images are rich and colourful, composed with an other-worldly quality that fits right at home with Potter's life. A wonderful addition is the animation sequences where we see her characters jump off the page as Potter imagines them, although it makes her character look a bit odd when she starts conversing with them.

Overall, a nice film but doesn't really take you any where special.

For the complete, original DVD review, click this link: http://www.allaboutmovies.net/dvdreviewmisspotter.htm

Alex DeMattia is the lead DVD reviewer at the film/DVD review web site All About Movies.net. He also contributes reviews and articles for the Digicosm Film Blog: http://www.filmannex.com/Digicosm

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