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Miss Potter

Uh-oh, it's that time of year again.

We've had the silly season, also known as the Summer, the predominantly dull Fall season and now we're here, the end of the year upon us. It's the time of the year when studios bring out their 'prestige' pictures. The films based on famous novels, the films with starry casts, the films based around a true story, the films known as"¦"¦.OscarBait.

It's a nasty affliction that has cursed many self-important films of the past decade. The studios, desperate to deliver the special movie that will win them every award under the sun. It can, on rare occasions, bring out the best. In last year's OscarBait season we had Munich and Brokeback Mountain. But already this year we've suffered through Bobby and All the King's Men.

It's a horrible feeling when you're watching something which has been tailored so speficially to be an award-winner. Which brings me to Miss Potter, a film cruelly designed by the evil Weinsteins to reign supreme at next year's ceremony.

Period setting "” check, Oscar-winning lead actress "” check, poorly performed British accent "” check, story based on a famous literary figure "” check. Miss Potter is as formulaic and painfully well-prepared as any Jerry Bruckheimer action picture.

It tells the tale of Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger), an unmarried woman living with her parents in the early 20th century. She has a passion for writing and illustrating and her only friends are the animals she draws. Pushed by her Mother to get married she instead manages to get her books published. Taken on by Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor) her books are a massive success. The two spend more and more time together and strike up a relationship. But it's one that her parents frown upon and Potter must make a life-changing decision.

The problem these days with biopics is that they are made for all the wrong reasons. A biopic should be made not just because the person who it's about is well-loved, but because their life is worth telling. This was a problem which plagued Walk the Line, a film that I loathed, since Johnny Cash's life was never dramatic enough for a whole movie. He drank a bit and had dad issues. So what?

And it's this problem which stifles Miss Potter. I was personally brought up with Potter's books so her worthiness as an author is something beyond question. But her life just isn't interesting enough to fill 100 minutes of screen time. The film crescendos an hour in and then fumbles along, with no conflict until the end. Admittedly the second act in the film does have it's moments. The tragic romance with Potter and her publisher is the film's strongpoint but it's just not

enough to sustain interest throughout.

Another major problem is the choice of Renee Zellweger, one of the most overrated actresses working in Hollywood today. That's not to say she is talentless, it's just to say that her talents are limited. She was a perfect choice to play Bridget Jones but as Beatrix Potter she's useless. Her accent and intonation are almost identical to when she played Jones and her facial expressions range from 'just sucked a lemon' to 'just sucked two lemons'. She will be endlessly pushed for Best Actress and knowing the aggressive Weinstein techniques will probably get a nomination. This will, I believe be the first sign of an impending apocalypse.

There's never enough depth in the character of Potter so we're never able to fully get under the skin of why she does what she does. There are attempts to give the film a Finding Neverland sense of fantasy as her animals leap off the page and interact with her but it only serves to remind of what a wonderful film Neverland was.

Other than the animation, the direction is so flat and dull you'd be shocked to hear it was the first film from Australian director Chris Noonan since Babe in 1995. While that film was so vibrant and full of life, Miss Potter is workmanlike and boring. It's also clumsy. In one scene, set just before Summer, Zellweger and McGregor are standing outside in the snow.

Like I said before, it's not all bad. As bad as the film may be, there's no disguising the brilliance of Beatrix Potter's original work. The romance with Ewan McGregor, although poorly developed is interesting and suitably tragic. But once the romance is over, the film is progressively boring until it finally runs out of steam at the end.

So, the curse of the OscarBait has hit again. Although I think with a big push, this is the kind of film Oscar voters will fall for. It's just so assuming, deliberate and unnecessary. All that's missing is Beatrix Potter on a motorbike, fighting off hitmen, all in slow-mo.

Movie Grade: C-

Synopsis:

Beatrix Potter has delighted generations of children with her books. But she kept her own private life locked carefully away. Oscar-winning star Renée 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

which she could not announce – or even talk about. In high-society London, her parents had insisted she keep it from friends and neighbours. 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.