Beatrix Potter was born in 1866 and raised in a stuffy Victorian home. Her mother’s greatest ambition for her was that she would make a good marriage match. But Miss Potter was not going to settle down just to please her parents. In a time when women were expected to marry and keep house, she was an author and an artist; she fought for land conservation, worked on a farm, and was a first-rate naturalist. Between the 1890s and 1920s Beatrix Potter published more than a dozen books that sold millions of copies and have come to be loved by children around the world.
Miss Potter, from director Chris Noonan (Babe), is based on her remarkable life. Renée Zellweger does a wonderful job portraying this very modern woman in Victorian England; her performance is heart-wrenching as well as uplifting. Beatrix Potter’s life is shown mostly from her 30s onward although we do get a few flashbacks to her childhood. We get a good sense of the family dynamics before the tests that come later, in which Beatrix struggles to have her parents understand her desire to publish her books.
We follow Beatrix as she talks to a publishing company about her children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit which was published in 1902. They make her an offer not expecting her book to be anything special and foist her off onto Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor), a young editor just getting started. Norman and Beatrix work very closely together and soon her book is a huge success — a success that her mother is less than happy with.
Beatrix becomes great friends with Norman’s sister Millie (Emily Watson); since both are unmarried and forward thinking for their time, they quickly bond. When Norman proposes it is Millie who encourages Beatrix to choose love over anything else and Beatrix does just that.
Though Beatrix’s parents (Barbara Flynn and Bill Paterson) do not approve, in the end they reluctantly agree to let her marry but with conditions. She may accept Norman’s proposal but they must keep it secret for three months while Beatrix goes on holiday with her parents. Helen Potter hopes that in doing this her daughter will realize the true depth of her emotion and call off the wedding plans.
The film also briefly touches on Beatrix Potter’s fight for land conservation in the Lake District. In a time when farms were being broken up and sold for land development Beatrix bought as much land as she could. There is a delightful scene of Beatrix at a land auction in which she keeps bidding and the price skyrockets but in the end she is successful. When Beatrix Potter died in 1943 she left 4,000 acres to the Trust Foundation; to this day to can go and see Hilltop Farm, the house she lived in, and experience the landscape that was her inspiration.
During the movie Beatrix’s drawings come to life. I was enchanted by the touch of animation and it brought a lovely whimsical element to the story. Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck winking and wriggling around made you realize how important these characters were.
The overall feeling of this film was lightness. There is heartbreaking sorrow in Miss Potter, but by the end you will find yourself with a grin on your face and a strangely light feeling in your heart.
