Its old-fashioned sincerity ultimately proves disarming. Sweet but not cloying, it’s a heartening portrait of goodness surmounting the odds.
Miss Potter (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:8
Fresh:5
Rotten:3
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: A charming biopic with that maintains its sweetness even in sadder moments.
Theatrical Release:05-01-2007
Synopsis: Beatrix Potter has delighted generations of children with her books. But she kept her own private life locked carefully away. Oscar-winning star Renee Zellweger is now bringing her secret story to... Beatrix Potter has delighted generations of children with her books. But she kept her own private life locked carefully away. Oscar-winning star Renee Zellweger is now bringing her secret story to the screen in "Miss Potter," the first film directed by Chris Noonan since his charming 1995 movie, Babe. It is set in the high summer days of late Victorian and Edwardian England, during which Beatrix develops her natural skills as artist and story-teller. When she finally publishes her debut book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, she becomes a writing celebrity. It also leads to courtship and her first love with publisher Norman Warne, played by Ewan McGregor. Their relationship and his marriage proposal in July, 1905, was to change Beatrix's life for ever. It was a love which she could not announce - or even talk about. In high-society London, her parents had insisted she keep it from friends and neighbours. They considered her proposed wedding a mismatch. Warne, they said, was from ‘trade' and demanded that she carefully reconsider their life together. Beatrix allowed herself to be persuaded to leave her fiancé and London. It was supposed to be a time for reflection and calm. But, instead, she faced tragedy and loneliness and returned, with a different outlook. She became a woman of strong views and independence. She also built up a farming dynasty in the Lake District - a dynasty over which she took charge long after her writing career virtually ended in 1913. It established her as a woman ahead of her time. Despite becoming the world's most successful children's writer and a wealthy landowner and prize-winning farmer, she never forgot her first love. -- © Weinstein Co. [More]
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Emily Watson, Ewan McGregor, Lloyd Owen
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Emily Watson, Ewan McGregor, Lloyd Owen
Director: Chris Noonan
Director: Chris Noonan
Producer: Mike Medavoy, David Thwaites, Arnold Messer, Corey Sienega
Composer: Nigel Westlake
Studio: Weinstein Company
Reviews for Miss Potter
Pitched awkwardly -- neither for children nor cool young adults -- it’s very sweet, very nice and just the thing for a girlie matinée with mum and nan.
The film is a guaranteed tearjerker, but more than that, an uplifting tribute to a single woman's quest for independence that would surely make Bridget Jones blush.
This film is the cinematic equivalent of a delicate English tea cake whose substance is buried under too many layers of icing.
The movie is redeemed by excellent performances. McGregor, in particular, lights up the film, and in her scenes with him, when she is not forced to interact with watercolor rabbits, Zellweger seems to wake up from a long, cranky nap.
Unfortunately, much of the pic suggests a quality family film that could have been directed by dozens of other pros.
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