Miss Potter

Patience, patience, for I seem to be morphing into a movie reviewer. Last night, I watched the movie, "Miss Potter" on DVD, a movie about Beatrix Potter, who gave us the charming children's books. I'm not a great fan of Renée Zellweger, who played Potter, especially when she plays Englishwomen. Her best work that I've seen was in "Cold Mountain", when she played the earthy farm woman. She has very full cheeks - not her fault, I know - but her makeup made her look quite ruddy, too ruddy, and enhanced the puffy look, rather than disguised it. Also, there was a shine in her face that was not becoming at all. I thought that the purpose of movie makeup was to diminish the focus on the less attractive aspects of our appearance.

I know, I know, this is nitpicking, but these thoughts were running through my mind in the first minutes of the movie to the point of distracting me from the story. With all that's at an actor's disposal to make her/him look good, why not take advantage? I sound like a high school mean girl, don't I? Mea culpa.

Finally, I got into the story. I did not know much of Potter's life, but the movie makers, make it clear early on that the love story between Zellweger and Ewan McGregor will not have a happy ending, by giving the viewer a dose of not so subtle portentousness. Potter's mother was a harpy, trying to make an advantageous marriage for her with dreadful rich men, and her father, although a nice man, had whiskers that were absolutely alarming.

I didn't quite get her talking to her animals, although there was some charming animation in the movie when the animals talked back.

The scenes from the Lake District were gorgeous. I've been there, so I know that the picture-postcard beauty of the place is genuine, but there was a bit too much lingering on the scenes, as though the film were a travelogue.

The movie made good stab at promoting feminism, showing the relative powerlessness of women at the time, but, as to the quality of the movie, it was not up to the standards of "The Queen". But then, not too many movies are.

NOTE: Minor editing for clarity.