Potter

Miss Potter is the kind of movie that criticising would be like shooting Peter Rabbit himself in the head. At times it may seem the filmmakers are following the recipe for biopics too closely. But they do it with such a sweet and light touch only someone much more cynical than I-there are such people-could complain.

A conceit of the film is that Beatrix Potter, played (and very well indeed) by Renée Zellweger, talks to her creations, who are realized in extremely well-done animation that seems to come right off the pages of the books we all remember.

A young actress named Lucy Boynton plays Potter at 10 in flashback scenes, and is equally as captivating as Miss Zellweger.

This movie could almost be a musical-in fact, for one scene, it is. Miss Potter and her romantic interest/publisher Norman Warne, played by Ewan McGregor-also terrific-are alone in her room for the first time.

She shows him a music box her father gave her when she was six, and is surprised when he knows the words to the tune, which she does not. So he sings them to her, and they dance (remember, this is Edwardian England)

Charming is the word.



PS: Just so you shouldn't think I've been completely taken over by the side of me that's girly, here's a couple images of Renee Zellweger that have nothing to do with this film.