Cinema - Miss Potter

Beatrix Potter’s life story is one of an upper-middle class woman struggling to make her name in the face of institutionalised Victorian sexism. A pampered child, she spent long periods alone, and compensated for this by learning to sketch her many pets. Later on she became a world expert on spore generation and fungi, but her work was not published, because she was a woman. At the age of 36, after years of trying, she finally found a publisher for her first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was well received, and gave her an independent income. She became engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, but her parents disapproved because he had to work for a living. He died before the marriage, and she moved to the Lake District, where she continued to write children’s stories, bred Hardwick sheep, and accumulated over 4,000 acres of land, which she donated in her will to the National Trust. She died in 1943.

A remarkable woman, then, and one whose biopic could have been handled in many different ways. Chris Noonan, the creator of ‘Babe’, was chosen and has produced a worthy but periodically dull film, which is charming but twee. Potter was known to be rather an irascible type in her old age. Once she was visited by a fan, who announced “I’ve come to see the world-famous author Beatrix Potter.” “Well you’ve seen her now, so push off,” came the reply. Zellwegger wrinkles her nose a lot, but doesn’t suggest there’s much depth to the character she’s portraying. Pity, that. Nice animation, though. DL