Review: Miss Potter

UK release date: 5th January

Beatrix Potter (Renée Zellweger) didn’t just write and illustrate world-famous children’s books, she was a protofeminist — making a fortune in a man’s world — and an early environmentalist — saving her beloved Lake District from property development. That’s the spin of Babe director Chris Noonan’s heart-warming but overly sentimental costume drama, in which Zellweger gurns a lot through her portrayal of the creative Victorian free spirit.

What makes the film work is Ewan McGregor’s effortless charm as the timid publisher who shares her vision of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and becomes her first romance in the bestselling process, and a sparkling Emily Watson as his spinster sister, who eventually befriends Beatrix.

Directed in picture-postcard style, with occasional flashes of cartoon animation depicting Potter’s creations and inner emotions, this is a sweet and lightweight treat.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 92mins

Review by Alan Jones

News: Renée Zellweger

Once again playing the English Rose in this week’s Miss Potter, Zellweger will be reverting to her natural Texan drawl for her next three pics.

First up, due for release in the US in August, is Case 39 – seemingly one of those Oscar-hungry “message” pics, but with a turn towards something a bit darker, as Zellweger plays a social worker trying to rescue a young girl from apparently abusive parents, only to discover there’s more to the situation than meets the eye.

Then, due out in the States in November, comes the film that billionaire comic Jerry Seinfeld is hoping will give him yet another big cheque, animated comedy The Bee Movie. Zellweger plays the New York florist who saves Seinfeld’s bee’s life and shows him that humans are not as bad as he thinks – until he discovers that we eat honey and decides to sue us. The all-star voice cast also includes the likes of Chris Rock, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Kathy Bates, Alan Arkin, Eddie Izzard, Larry King and Oprah Winfrey.

Finally, and due for a 2008 release, she will crop up in George Clooney’s next effort as writer/director/star, 1920s-set American Football-based romantic comedy Leatherheads. Little information is as yet available, but it looks likely that she and big George will be hooking up on screen – and based on Clooney’s previous outings as director, it should be one to look out for.

News: Ewan McGregor

McGregor is working harder than ever these days, with this week’s Miss Potter the first of eight movies in which he’ll be starring over the next couple of years.

There’s action thriller The Tourist, alongside the equally prolific Hugh Jackman, animated adventure Agent Crush, alongside the voices of Neve Campbell and near-legendary Sir Roger Moore, comic fantasy I, Lucifer, as man whose body is taken over by Daniel Craig’s Satan, and sci-fi thriller Franklyn, about which little is as yet known other than that McGregor is set to star, and The Great Pretender, where he will play a Hollywood star playing Bonnie Prince Charlie in a film as well as the lookalike extra who is roped in to taking over when the hotshot actor goes missing.

On top of all that, he’ll be cropping up in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream – as yet not set for release on either side of the Atlantic, but likely to be out this year – and the intriguing-sounding Number 13, based around the set of genius director Alfred Hitchcock’s last, never completed, movie, where love triangles and murder abound just as much as they ever did in Hitch’s own flicks. A fair array of different types of films there, and not a lightsabre in sight – which must come as a blessed relief…

News: Emily Watson

Brit stalwart Emily Watson continues to put in good, understated character performances in films like this week’s Miss Potter, and her upcoming flicks look to be no exception. She’ll next be on the big screen in December in children’s fantasy The Waterhorse, in which a young boy discovers an egg that hatches a legendary Scottish beastie, before cropping up alongside Johnny Depp in the decidedly more adult-themed Shantaram, based on the novel of drug addiction and underworld dealings in India by Gregory David Roberts, which was based on his own real-life experiences. With Depp in the lead, and the novel having been critically lauded, it should prove interesting.