London at the dawn of the 20th Century. Beatrix Potter is a spinster in her mid-30s, living with her parents. Miss Potter aspires to write and illustrate children's books, an ambition that meets with little approval from her parents, even when the publishing house of Frederick Warne & Co agrees to publish her work The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
In some respects, her parents are right to be sceptical: Mr Warne fully expects the book to be a failure, but it seems a harmless project with which to occupy his inexperienced younger brother, Norman.
Fortunately for Miss Potter, and children everywhere, while Norman might never have published a book before, he isn't the fool his brother believes him to be. He likes the book, and he's thought deeply about how to make it a success. He and Beatrix soon become steadfast allies, and over time, something more blossoms between them.
Peter Rabbit proves a huge success, and it seems that Beatrix may not only soon become Mrs Warne, but also has the wealth to be independent in her own right. This is the real world, however - or at least, a biographical film of a real person - and sometimes things don't work out quite so smoothly. Can Miss Potter navigate the shoals that the river of life has ahead for her? Well, obviously; this is clearly not a film that's going to have a downer ending; but a journey can be interesting even when we know the destination, and so it proves here.
Miss Potter is a fine celebration of Potter's life and works; literary and otherwise. Potter left almost all the original illustrations for her books, and nearly all her property, to the National Trust. The latter included over 4,000 acres of land. It was then the largest gift ever received by the National Trust, and part of the property now forms part of the famed Lake District National Park. As you might imagine from that last fact, the film is also a visual treat, with many sequences set in wild and beautiful places.
Of course, good visuals alone will not generally make a film enjoyable, as the confused mess that is something like The Rise of Skywalker shows us. Fortunately, there are not such problems here. This is a well-written biographical film that intelligently explores themes of happiness, love, loss and recovery. Importantly, at least to my mind, it draws a clear divide between happiness and romantic love, quietly demonstrating that people can have the former without the latter, even if the latter ultimately finds them.
I'm pleased to say that the script is as successful at the small scale, moment by moment elements as it is with its larger themes. A wry but gentle humour laces its way through much of the dialogue and many of the interactions, frequently evoking chuckles from me.
Some of the success of the film must be attributed to the excellent cast, headed by a winsome performance from the ever-reliable Renee Zellweger. The slow-burn romance between her Miss Potter and Ewan McGregor's Mr Warne is very well executed; they have excellent chemistry together, being convincingly not just in love but also great friends. The whole cast is very good, though. While I've only singled out these two by name, there's not a single bad performance here.
Miss Potter may be lacking in excitement for some, but I found it to be a lovely movie that left me feeling pleasantly uplifted.
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