Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson, Barbara
Flynn, Bill Paterson, Lloyd Owen. MGM. Writer Richard
Malby Jr. Director Chris Noonan. Opens1/5/07.
FILM SYNOPSIS: Beatrix Potter has delighted
generations of children with her books. But she kept
her own private life locked carefully away.
Oscar-winning star Renee Zellweger is now bringing
her secret story to the screen in Miss Potter, the
first film directed by Chris Noonan since his charming
1995 movie, Babe.
It is set in the high summer days of late Victorian
and Edwardian England, during which Beatrix develops
her natural skills as artist and story-teller. When
she finally publishes her debut book, The Tale of
Peter Rabbit, she becomes a writing celebrity.
It also leads to courtship and her first love with
publisher Norman Warne, played by Ewan McGregor. Their
relationship and his marriage proposal in July, 1905,
was to change Beatrix's life for ever.
It was a love she could not announce - or even talk
about. In high-society London, her parents had
insisted she keep it from friends and neighbors. They
considered her proposed wedding a mismatch. Warne,
they said, was from "trade" and demanded
that she carefully reconsider their life together.
Beatrix allowed herself to be persuaded to leave
her fiancé and London. It was supposed to be a time
for reflection and calm. But, instead, she faced
tragedy and loneliness, and returned with a different
outlook.
She became a woman of strong views and
independence. She also built up a farming dynasty in
the Lake District - a dynasty over which she took
charge long after her writing career virtually ended
in 1913. It established her as a woman ahead of her
time.
Despite becoming the world's most successful
children's writer and a wealthy landowner and
prize-winning farmer, she never forgot her first love.
It is beautifully photographed, with a witty and
sharply written script. Ms. Zellweger plays her part
well as an independent woman in an era when that
outlook was shunned. What's more, she radiates joy as
a woman who discovers self-respect and one who lives
to see her work appreciated.
On top of that, Miss Potter is the most romantic
film of the year. (Bring hankies – one for you, and
yes, one for him.)
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