 List Price: $19.95
Lowest Price: $13.35 
Description: (Drama) The story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", and her struggle for love, happiness and success. Amazon.com: Miss Potter walks that fine line between charming and cloying with pleasing sure-footedness. Apple-cheeked Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones' Diary) once again slips into a British accent to play writer/illustrator Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit. Potter, born into wealth, fought the disapproval of her high society mother to do something as crass as publish a book...and to fall in love with her publisher, Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor, previously teamed with Zellweger in Down With Love). Unfortunately, their love runs into something worse than upper-class stuffiness. Miss Potter skips through Potter's life a bit too briskly at times, but Zellweger's thankfully restrained performance, McGregor's infinite charm, and some beautiful shots of the English landscape keep the movie grounded and engaging. Also featuring a crackling supporting performance by Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves) as Warne's sister Millie. --Bret Fetzer Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-05
A Real Gem
Call this one a sleeper. Not all video clubs got it; Hollywood Video didn't get it so I thought it was a B rated, turn of the century dime novel made for the movies. Wrong! This movie was one of the best of the year, if not the best. Renee Zellweger should have received professional recognition for her portrayl of Beatrix Potter, creator of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and other children's books. Great for the whole family. I have no idea how the PG rating was derived; the back of the DVD case said for "brief mild language" whaatever that means. I've ordered the movie so we'll be able enjoy it in our family for years to come. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-03
As We Watch Her Drawings Dance....
Amid the beautiful and verdant English countryside, the tale of Beatrix Potter unfolds.
In the role of the title character, Renee Zellweger is pert, and simply done-up, but perhaps a bit too emphatic at times with the British accent that comes so naturally to her co-stars.
Through Chris Noonan's skillful and enchanting direction, we are privy to Miss Potter's initial meeting with the Warne Brothers at their publishing firm as her now-classic tale of Peter Rabbit is reluctantly launched by them.
The project is handed to the youngest Warne Brother,novice publisher, Norman, played by a sunny and amiable Ewan McGregor(with a strong resemblance to the actual Norman Warne), who in the company of Beatrix' elderly chaperone, Miss Wiggin(Matyelok Gibbs),introduces her to the publishing process.
We see her life at home in a cozy London apartment with her parents, Rupert and Helen (Bill Paterson, and Barbara Flynn). Her father, a lawyer who never really practiced his trade, spends most of his days at a men's club, but who has encouraged his daughter's artistic prowess since her childhood, as he was once an aspiring artist himself.
Her class-conscious mother disapproves of Beatrix' non-conformist lifestyle, but by insisting that the family summer in the Lake District, as is fashionable, ultimately provides her daughter with inspiration for a more desireable lifestyle, and for more fodder for her childrens' stories than she could have imagined.
Miss Potter has tea with Norman's mother(Phyllida Law) and becomes good friends with his sister, Millie (Emily Watson giving a performance with a lot of range, but mostly with strenghth).
In the meantime, we are treated to flashbacks of Beatrix' childhood, at home, and also in the Lake District where the little girl(Lucy Boynton) and her brother Bertram (Oliver Jenkins) roam about, chase the animals that Beatrix loves and loves to draw, where the caretaker's son William Heelis(Justin McDonald) takes an interest in her drawings and paintings, and she listens to stories about fairy beasts told to her by her nanny, Fiona (Patricia Flannigan). But like many imaginative children who become writers, Beatrix creates her own stories.
Interspersed with this tale of a teller of childrens' tales are moments when the drawings of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, and others of Beatrix Potter's now-world-famous menagerie of friends spring to life before our eyes--delightful moments that illustrate how real these characters were to their creator.
Beatrix' father is more impressed with her literary success than her mother, and Mrs. Potter reluctantly invites Norman and Millie to the family's Christmas party. The siblings hold up well amid the Potters' many titled guests, and there is more than one romantic moment between Norman and Beatrix.
Apprehensive about the romance between the two, the Potters coax their daughter to summer with them in the Lake District once again, to see if her feelings will change.Little does Beatrix realize that on this journey, she will be saying farewell to her past and hello to her future.
Tragedy strikes, but just beforehand, she reunites with her former acquaintance, William Heelis, who is now a country solicitor(played with charisma by a tall, clear-eyed, crinkly smiling, photogenic Lloyd Owen, who has delightfully rich coloring).
Ultimately, the childrens' author is compelled to make a life for herself on her own terms at a time when that was rare for women, and along the way, she discovers that someone close to her has the same regard for her watercolor and pen-and-ink pals as she has.
Viewers are treated to a gem of a true story, told with as much vivid imagination as the authoress herself might have had, if not more, and we glean from this sunny triumphant tale, lessons about independance, and of how life goes on after the worst happens.
"We must present ourselves to the world!" she tells her menagerie at the beginning, "and we must think of it as an adventure!"
Now the world can share in the adventure of the animal characters and their creator in a film that is destined to become a classic in its own right.
Rating:
Date: 2008-06-30
A tour-de-force for Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellwegger
I will start by saying that this is a romanticized and fictionalized "biographical" movie of the life of Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit. But however true or not true it is to her life story, it is still an excellent movie based on the culture of the end of the Victorian age. There is an amazing and real feeling of the repression of the age, where even taking a lady's hand was fraught with meaning. Both Ewan and Renee manage to portray the growing attraction between them with just a lowered eye, a slight smile, a flush of color, and a lingering glance. And the supporting cast, including Emily Watson, make this an eminently watchable movie.
If you are a fan of movies such as "Finding Neverland", "Room with a View", and "Gosford Park" where the culture and manners are as much a character as the humans, I think you will like "Miss Potter". Rating:
Date: 2008-06-27
My wife loves this movie!
Miss Potter, the movie is now one of my wife's favorites. The period setting, the romantic story based on the life of Beatrix Potter, the English countryside, the example of good stewardship of the land - this, coupled with great acting, make this a clasic movie. It earns a big 10 on the Wife-O-Meter! Rating:
Date: 2008-06-27
Miss Potter
I knew very little about Beatrix Potter. I loved the movie. The acting was great as well as the photography of the Lake District. I highly recommend this film. |
