Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

'Miss Potter' charming, but lacks subject's spunk

Peter Rabbit's creator, Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), described Benjamin Bunny, her first cottontail character, as "an impudent, cheeky little thing." Ditto Potter's Hunca Munca, the bad mouse who smashed the miniature plaster ham in the dollhouse when she found it inedible. Likewise Jemima Puddle-duck, the fowl in the poke bonnet and shawl, better at hatching plans than eggs in the tale lyrically illustrated by Potter in glowing watercolors.

Peter Rabbit's creator, Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), described Benjamin Bunny, her first cottontail character, as "an impudent, cheeky little thing."

Ditto Potter's Hunca Munca, the bad mouse who smashed the miniature plaster ham in the dollhouse when she found it inedible. Likewise Jemima Puddle-duck, the fowl in the poke bonnet and shawl, better at hatching plans than eggs in the tale lyrically illustrated by Potter in glowing watercolors.

Not so Miss Potter, an honorable but spunkless account of the spirited spinster whose struggle for creative expression and personal independence is one of the great untold stories of England's Edwardian era.

Justifiably famous as the author-illustrator of children's books, Potter is less well known as a naturalist with an eye and pen as keen as that of Audubon, a mycologist who enlarged scientific knowledge about fungi, and an environmentalist who fought to protect England's open spaces.

While Miss Potter alludes to its title character's many pursuits, she is presented primarily as a social misfit who needed to create a place for herself.

The film has lovely moments, and I don't mind admitting that my heart danced each time one of Potter's critters jumped off her easel to converse mischievously with his creator. But however picturesque, overall this film from Chris Noonan is a shallow stream lacking the emotional undercurrents that gave Finding Neverland and Noonan's own Babe their unexpected pull.

Her bunny nose atwitch, Renée Zellweger's Miss Potter suggests a human version of the author's most famous character. Also like Peter Rabbit, Miss Potter doesn't always listen to her mother (Barbara Flynn), a socialite who discourages her daughter's artistic ambitions.

Mrs. Potter thinks Miss Potter should be married, preferably to the kind of fellow who spends the day at his gentleman's club.

Miss Potter prefers Norman Warne (delightful Ewan McGregor), the awkward youngest brother of the publishing family that makes Peter Rabbit a household name, but Mrs. Potter sniffs that he is an unsuitable suitor.

The filmmakers show how author and publisher bond during the gestation of the children's books. But the uncertain rhythms and stresses of the piece suggest that they didn't know whether they were making a romance, a biography or a bedtime story.

Miss Potter is all three, of course. And all are very engaging - and happily G-rated. At 92 minutes, the film has the economy of a Potter story, but not the shapeliness or the zip.

Miss Potter **1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Mike Medavoy, David Kirschner, Corey Sienega, Arnold Messer and David Thwaites, directed by Chris Noonan, written by Richard Maltby Jr., photography by Andrew Dunn, music by Nigel Westlake, distributed by the Weinstein Co.

Running time: 1 hour, 32 mins.

Beatrix Potter. . . Renée Zellweger

Norman Warne. . . Ewan McGregor

Millie Warne. . . Emily Watson

Mrs. Potter. . . Barbara Flynn

Rupert Potter. . . Bill Paterson

Parent's guide: PG (nothing unsuitable for children)

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse and Ritz Sixteen/NJEndText