“Miss Potter” : Beatrix Potter

I didn’t know much about Beatrix Potter before I watched “Miss Potter” except she had written famous children’s books. I didn’t even know she had done the illustrations for her stories. I was amazed to learn how far ahead of her time Beatrix Potter was in terms of the image of today’s modern female. She bloomed later in life, but was truly a renaissance woman.

The bulk of “Miss Potter” centers around Beatrix Potter (played brilliantly by Renee Zelweggar) getting her first book published, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and the romance she experienced in the process. Flashbacks are used to give a backdrop of her childhood (the younger Beatrix Potter is played wonderfully by Lucy Boynton) in a large London house amongst the male-dominated society of Victorian/Edwardian England in the latter 19th century and early 20th century. Even as an adult single woman, whenever Beatrix is out in pubic she is always accompanied by an elderly woman chaperone (played in a humorous deadpan way by Matyelok Gibbs).

Beatrix Potter was the only child of a wealthy aristocratic family until six years old when her brother Bertrand was born. She was raised by a succession of Governesses and seldom saw her parents. She was not allowed to interact with other children, so she and Bertrand created a world of their own that revolved around their menagerie of pets, many of which were caught in the wild while on holiday in the country..

When Bertrand was old enough he was sent off to boarding school, so Beatrix Potter found her enjoyment in life drawing sketches of her pets and making water color paintings of nature. “Miss Potter” does a clever job of showing how much Beatrix loved her creations through limited use of animation where she and the drawings interact with each other. My favorite scene is when young Beatrix is looking out the window one evening at a carriage being pulled by several horses and uses her imagination to see the horses turned into large rabbits.

Being an upper class daughter, Beatrix Potter was trained to be the proper wife of an upper class man, learning the duties of running a household. Her mother, Helen Potter (played by veteran actress Barbara Flyn) was a snobbish social climber who arranged a parade of suitors for Beatrix, but she turned them all down. By the age of 20 she was resigned to be a spinster who would concentrate on her art rather than live with a man she didn’t care for. Her father, Rupert Potter (played by Bill Paterson) does recognize Beatrix’s talent and even arranges for her to meet the great pre-Raphaelite painter Millis who encourages her to continue developing her artistic abilities.

At the age of 32, “Miss Potter” shows us Beatrix Potter as the one running her parents household for them, and also trying to get her first book published. After many rejections the publishing house of Fredrich Warne agrees to publish her book and passes the project onto the youngest of three sons, Norman, who is wanting to become a part of the family business. Norman (played proficiently by Ewan McGregor) is a shy man who very much appreciates Beatrix’s craftsmanship. He edits The Tale of Peter Rabbit in such a way that it becomes an overnight success. During the process Norman opens up a whole new world to Beatrix, and he encourages her to create more stories which they can work on together. A romance slowly develops and Beatrix Potter finally finds true love. Continued