Evangelicals Now
<< February 2007 >>

Miss Potter

Move over, Harry
MISS POTTER
Cert. PG
Director: Chris Noonan

A hundred years on from the first time that Peter Rabbit, Mrs Tiggywinkle and Jemima Puddleduck were introduced to the world, this film tells the story of their creator, Beatrix Potter.

This is, no doubt, a romanticised account but it is most charmingly told, with a touching performance from RenŽe Zellweger as the heroine. The tale cleverly alludes to many hot issues of the 20th and 21st centuries: the lot of females in a male-dominated world; the plight of the single woman; the divisions of class in society and the need to conserve the landscape. But supremely this is a story of the power of story, even quirky and childish stories about rabbits who wear coats and very stupid ducks.

Story supersedes the barriers of class and generations and even of time itself as the durability of Potter’s stories has shown. A critical scene in the film is of Beatrix mesmerising a group of titled ladies and gentlemen with a snippet of a story.

But to her domineering mother Beatrix is just a difficult and rebellious daughter who determinedly rejects eminent suitors for marriage and inconveniently falls in love with her publisher. Even when Beatrix is exceedingly rich and famous, her mother acknowledges neither her success nor her right to make her own decisions and run her own life. Beatrix’s animal creations at the most stressful period of her life are her best friends.

A powerful imagination is truly a gift of the God in whose image we are made. This is a film worth seeing not least for the attention it draws to the golden age of children’s literature when stories were original and illustrations were works of art.

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