Film Reviews

Miss Potter

• Rating:
• Director: Chris Noonan
• Starring: Emily Watson
• Details: US / UK / 92mins (G).

"Be warned - I am prepared to like you very much." Diabetics and cynics take heed: this film is a serious danger to your health and your belief system respectively, as Miss Potter is as sweet and sugary as her best-selling children's books. But what else can you expect from Chris Noonan, the director of Babe? Kooky Beatrix Potter (Zellweger) is determined to get her Peter Rabbit book published, and is given a chance by the charming Norman Wane (McGregor), a publisher only given the job by his older brothers who expect him to make a hash of it. However, the book is a success and a relationship flowers between Beatrix and Norman. Noonan coats his movie with as much sugary goodness as he can get away with, and he just about does - delivering a movie that's as childlike as Potter's work. This is a plus rather than a minus; Miss Potter is simply delightful and there'll probably be a silly grin on your face long after the end credits roll. Where the movie tries too hard is when it goes overboard in making Potter and Norman's sister Millie (Watson) proto-feminists. Determined to stay single despite pressures from their parents to pass them off on any suitor with a bank account, their unwavering beliefs are reiterated ad infinitum throughout the film and it gets a little tiring after a while. Zellweger really has this Englishness thing down and reigns in the kookiness (she speaks to her character drawings who come alive before her eyes) when required, so it's always charming and never annoying. McGregor, the epitome of charming here, could, on the strength of this, easily play Cary Grant if there ever were a biopic on the actor's life.

Review by Gavin Burke