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The bunny trail

A superficial biopic tries hard but falls short
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July 4th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Who would have thought a children's story could be such serious business?
Miss Potter

Directed by Chris Noonan
With Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson, Barbara Flynn, Bill Paterson, Matyelok Gibbs

By Eric Larson
For the Post
Miss Potter picks up in 1902, just as the 36-year-old British author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, played by Renee Zellweger, hands over to Harold (Anton Lesser) and Fruing (David Bamber) Warne her first “bunny book.” It’s the little volume that introduced the English-speaking world to a mischievous little mammal called Peter Rabbit, and was the first step in making Potter a household name, which she has remained for the past 100 years.
In a couple of early scenes, we witness Potter chatting unselfconsciously with Peter, Jemima Puddle-duck, Mrs. Tittlemouse and the rest of the gang, who come alive on the page before her in all their subdued watercolor beauty. This access to the artist’s imagination, an effective dramatization of just how powerful a force creativity can be, seems just the thing to settle in with and enjoy a film perhaps akin to Finding Neverland, the whimsical 2004 biopic about the equally imaginative and slightly eccentric J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan.
As Miss Potter hops along, however — and it does so swiftly— we begin to question its fidelity to exploring the rich imagination and complicated character of its namesake. In fact, it soon becomes clear that the film lacks sufficient focus and depth altogether.
If it is not about the artist’s imagination, and not quite about her reclusive though perpetually perky personality — manifest in Zellweger’s swollen red cheeks and persistent grin — then surely it intends to zero in on her status as a single woman in an upper-class English family dominated by Mrs. Potter, who refuses to accept her daughter’s resolve to make her own way in the world.   
Yes, that’s it. And then again, maybe not.
The films flutters among these subjects for a while before shifting our waning patience over to the predictable, though slow, development of the love story between Potter — who throughout the film expresses her disdain for the myth of romantic love — and Norman Warne, whose brother assigned him to Potter’s book fully expecting it, and her, to fail. In its failure to build any modicum of intensity in the relationship between Potter and Warne, the film has an especially difficult time pulling our heartstrings when the relationship comes to a tragic end.
With Beatrix alone, the film focuses its last moments not inward, but outward, toward her benevolent project of buying and preserving land in England’s Lake District, where the Potters spent their summer holidays. By this time, though, we are either sleeping or imagining ourselves as bunnies, bouncing straight out of the theater and back to our lives, which suddenly aren’t quite as dull as we thought.
Perhaps that’s too harsh. While the story is scattered and the characters lack a crucial third dimension, the individual performances are commendable. Zellweger consistently keeps the blood running through her somewhat staid character, making her interesting to listen to and watch. McGregor plays Norman not unlike he played Christian in Moulin Rouge — earnest and nervous in just the right combination. Barbara Flynn and Bill Paterson are convincing as Potter’s parents, an upper-class English couple who ignore each other completely. Flynn in particular, plump and fussy, stands out as the only real antagonist in the script.
And cinematographer Andrew Dunn’s shots of the Lake District go a long way toward picking up a film that otherwise misses a perfect opportunity to stimulate the starved imagination of its audience.
Eric Larson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


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