Miss Potter

last updated 8 January 2015

This biopic of children's author Beatrix Potter is 'œso sweet and perfectly made you want to kiss it on the cheek,' said Tom Long in the Detroit News. The movie begins in England in 1902, as the twee Miss Potter (RenÃ©e Zellweger) shops her 'œbunny book' to publishers. The book, destined to become the best-selling classic The Tale of Peter Rabbit, is accepted by a socially inept young clerk, played by Ewan McGregor. Miss Potter and the clerk fall in love, slowly, while her book flies off the shelves and Beatrix's snotty mother is forced to eat her anti-feminist words. The sweetness of this film is hardly tempered by Zellweger's squinty performance, or by fanciful scenes in which her bunnies and ducks speak from the drawing board, said Stephen Holden in The New York Times. 'œThere's a reason that recipes for cake and cookies call for a pinch of salt.' The oversweet approach is especially strange when we consider that Miss Potter's own books were not purely cute'”they were fairly matter-of-fact about bunny-killing predators. Beatrix Potter's life just isn't big enough for a motion picture, said Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News. The woman wasn't an enigmatic literary hero; she was a nature geek who liked to draw pictures. That lack of interesting material makes Miss Potter 'œa solid one-hour love story followed by a dramatized Wikipedia entry.'

Rating: PG