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MISS POTTER
Directed by Chris Noonan.
Produced by: Mike Medavoy, David Kirschner, Corey Sienega, Arnold Messer, & David Thwaites.
Written by: Richard Maltby Jr.
Director of Photography: Andrew Dunn.
Edited by: Robin Sales.
Released by: MGM/Weinstein Company.
Country of Origin: UK/USA. 92 Min. Rated PG.
With: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson, Barbara Flynn, Bill Paterson, & Matyelok Gibbs.

Chris Noonan waited a decade to find the perfect follow-up film to Babe. The result is a charming, whimsical film, with a moving star-crossed romance at its center. He confidently brings to life the world of Beatrix Potter, creator of beloved children’s books, most notably The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

Renée Zellweger, who has become incredibly at ease playing Brits, plays the author, a talented, creative woman living within Victorian constraints. Coming from an upper-class family, she is a constant disappointment to her mother for not marrying. Beatrix just wants to write and sell her books about her “friends” – rabbits, squirrels and other animals – which was not only unacceptable for her gender, but for someone of her class. And as a single woman, she can not leave home unaccompanied. On every outing, she’s amusingly shadowed by her dour and deadpan chaperone, Miss Wiggin (Matyelok Gibbs).

Potter is turned down by publishers across London before the brothers who run Frederick Warne & Company take her on as a project for their younger sibling, Norman Warne, who is trying to break into the business. It is a fortuitous connection as both Beatrix and Norman hope to prove they can be successful. And she does, becoming a huge literary success while falling in love with Norman, played with charming reserve by Ewan McGregor. But because of their class difference, her parents vehemently disapprove of the match. Yet, Beatrix persists, and she becomes secretly engaged. She also becomes quite close to Millie, Norman’s sister, a kindred spirit – feisty, smart, and unmarried. Emily Watson is wonderfully giddy as Millie, a woman who gets great pleasure from flouting the conventions of womanhood with the line “men are good for two things, financial support and procreation.” Her scenes with Zellweger are some of the best in the film.

Zellweger is really able to lose herself in the part, and she and McGregor have wonderful timing. Even though Noonan has been waiting a long time for the right film to come along, you know you are in the hands of an able craftsman. Every detail, especially the scenes filmed in the English Lake District, is beautiful – it makes you want to hop on a plane. Among Beatrix Potter’s endeavors, she donated large areas of countryside to the National Trust to be preserved for future generations. A commercial for the British Tourism Authority could not have been more effective than this lovely film.

Melissa Silverstein, a writer on women & popular culture and online editor for The Women's Media Center
December 29, 2006