MISS POTTER

UK, 2006, 92 minutes, Colour.
Renee Zellweger, Ewan Mc Gregor, Emily Watson, Barbara Flynn, Bill Paterson, Matyelok Gibbs, Lloyd Owen, Anton Lesser, David Bamber, Lucy Boynton.
Directed by Chris Noonan.

This really is a film of sweetness and light – which only an ingrained grump (and it seems there are many) could dislike.

Beatrix Potter first published her tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Jeremy Fisher and other animal friends in 1902. Despite the publishing company’s reservations, they proved enormously popular and have taken their place as the most successful children’s books. Not only were the stories hers but also the illustrations.

Australian director, Chris Noonan (who directed Babe) has a gentle sensibility which enables him to interpret Richard Maltby Jr’s screenplay in a style that resembles the illustrations of Beatrix Potter as well as the old-world gentility of Edwardian England and its manners while indicating that beneath the elegant surfaces there were angers and tensions. This was a period of expected gentility in the upper and middle classes. It was also an era of unbearable snobbery, especially in the nouveau riche families who had forgotten their more down-to-earth origins and the sources of their wealth. Miss Potter does not shirk these realities while still portraying the elegantly restrained and sometimes repressive surfaces.

Beatrix was a vivacious and precocious child in her imagination, her storytelling and her drawings. She grew up hemmed in by society expectations for an unmarried woman, being required to live at home with her parents who were on the lookout for a suitor, any suitor. Her father was affirming of his daughter though generally able to avoid too much responsibility in the house. This was left to his corseted and coiffed gorgon of a wife who was the embodiment of class arrogance.

This comes to a head when Beatrix publishes and mixes with ‘trade’ (the book company managers and the printers). It gets worse when she wants to marry ‘trade’ – and even her father lets her down.

‘Trade’ is in the form of the youngest brother of the Warne publishing company owners, Norman, an earnest fellow whose first book assignment is the potential failure, Beatrix’s tales. Beatrix is delighted with the book and also with Norman. And, observing the utmost propriety (Beatrix is accompanied everywhere by an unsmiling chaperone), they fall in love.

If you don’t know what happened to them, you need to see the film.

Renee Zellwegger returns to the UK where she made a great hit in the two Bridget Jones’s Diary films. Hers is a somewhat mannered performance but she makes the mannerisms those of Beatrix. She is more than a little fey as she talks to the animals (and some restrained animation throughout lets them gesture in return – the came alive in the ballet film of 1971, The Tales of Beatrix Potter, with choreography by Frederick Ashton). The animals have always been her friends, and are more reliable than adults. But, through the performance, we feel we have got to know and understand Betatrex.

Ewan Mc Gregor couldn’t be nicer as Norman Warne. He is polite, admires the drawings and the stories, delights in meeting Beatrix and falls in love with her. Emily Watson is charmingly eccentric as Millie Warne who becomes Beatrix’s good friend.

Something should be said about Barbara Flynn’s unnerving performance as Helen Potter. She really is monstrously insensitive to her daughter on the ordinary human level as well as not appreciating her work. Bill Paterson is good as her father.

Obviously, Miss Potter is not going to set the world on fire. But the film prettily recreates a period from which both Wonderland and Neverland emerged as well as the gentle woods where Peter Rabbit dwelt with his nicely pastel-coloured friends.

1. The esteem for Beatrix Potter? Her reputation and talent? Her stories? The world’s best seller for children’s books?

2.A sweet and genteel film? Yet strong underpinning? A portrait of Beatrix Potter? In her times?

3.The title, primness, expectations? Victorian and Edwardian periods? The atmosphere of 1902?

4.The careful attention to re-creation of period, 1902, the Edwardian era, the house, the servants, high society, the world of publishing, the factories for printing, London itself? Scotland and the Lake District? The contrast between country and city? The farms? The musical score? A view of a period?

5.The straightforward narrative about Beatrix and the publication of her books, her engagement to Norman Warne? The flashbacks inserted? Throwing light on the adult Beatrix? The focus on the animals – and the animation sequences, the drawings coming alive, mischievous and cheeky?

6.Beatrix Potter as a young girl, strong-minded, her relationship with her brother, telling the stories, his eagerness, the nanny listening? Her relationship with her parents? Their being very proper, their place in society? Her love for animals, drawing the rabbit? Her various sketches? The animals becoming her friends? Her parents going out – and her father giving gifts, including the rabbit? Her hopes for the future? This childhood experience as a basis for her future?

7.The portrait of the Potters, the father as being genial, not working as a lawyer, going to his club, absence, his praising of Beatrix’s drawings? The contrast with the mother, her style, haughty, her putting down of Beatrix, her wanting Beatrix to be married, the collage of suitors – and the visual jokes eg the man who looked like a horse? The information about Bertram leaving home? The mother’s attitude towards trade? Her parties, the guests, their small talk? Her shock with Beatrix telling the party the stories – and their delight in listening to them? Her being forced to accept the Warnes? The engagement, her reaction? The father’s reaction at the club – negative? The arguments at home, Beatrix with enough money to support herself, her father knowing this, her mother not knowing it? Her father buying one of her books? The discussions, the compromise about the summer? The holiday, the arrival of the letters, the non-arrival of Norman’s letter? Lily’s letter and her grief? The mother as the only one who didn’t know that Beatrix was a celebrity?

8.Renee Zellweger as the adult Beatrix, her eccentric manners? In her thirties, alone, her decision about not marrying, her delight in drawing, inventing the stories? Seeing the animals come alive? The difficulties with her parents, living with them? Miss Wiggen as the chaperone, silent, always present? Her going out, the interview with the Warne brothers, the acceptance of the manuscript? The appointment of Norman, his visit, her response to his enthusiasm? Her shrewdness? Going to the printers, fussiness about the colour? The delight in the success of the books? Her amazement about the money – and her later shrewdness in financial dealings?

9.Her falling in love with Norman, very formal, in his company, regretting that their friendship would end with the publication of the book? The delight in the continued books? His visits? The party, his attempted proposal, its being interrupted, her saying yes? Her having to deal with her father? Her reaction to the talks, the compromise? The summer holiday, her receiving the letters, her delight, her worry about Norman after his being drenched at the railway station? Lily’s letter?

10.The brothers Warne, their discussions with Beatrix about the book, their reservations, giving the job to Norman? Their mother and Bearix’s visits to her, her approval? Lily and the household? Beatrix going at the time of Norman’s death and their wanting her to leave? Not knowing about the engagement?

11.Lily, her strong stances, her decision not to marry, her meeting with Beatrix, their becoming friends, a confidante? The visits, the Christmas dinner, playing whist and winning? Her supporting Beatrix about the marriage, going back on her own ideas about love? The information about Norman’s death, the visit and her supporting Beatrix after Norman’s death?

12.Norman, nice, the younger son, his relationship with his mother, the visits, his brother’s not trusting him and his abilities, his wanting to be in the firm, taking on the book, his delight in the stories and drawings, his response to Beatrix? The practical aspects, the print size, the selection of the drawings, the publishing, the printing and the colour? Not ending the relationship, other books? The Christmas visit, his attempts to propose? At the railway station, drenched? His death?

13.The north, the holidays, the farm? The aftermath of Norman’s death, Beatrix buying the farm? With Mr Heelis? At the auction? Her being told off by the developer? Her buying other farms, working the farms? Heelis’s admiration? The information about her donation of the land to the people?

14.Heelis, pleasant, a genial agent? His accompanying her on the tours of the farms? The auction? The marriage?

15.A pleasing portrait of a celebrated woman – and the portrait of a transition period from the 19th to the 20th century?