{"id":2209,"date":"2007-04-08T23:40:44","date_gmt":"2007-04-08T23:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/miss-potter.html"},"modified":"2007-04-08T23:40:44","modified_gmt":"2007-04-08T23:40:44","slug":"miss-potter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/04\/miss-potter.html","title":{"rendered":"Miss Potter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie and I went to see Miss Potter, the biopic of Beatrix Potter starring Renee Zellwegger<\/a> at our local art film joint.<\/a> <\/p>\n

It was quite good – better than I expected – especially the first 2\/3 of the film. After that point, after a significant life change, the rest of the film is occupied by seeing Beatrix pull her life back together, which is not quite as interesting as seeing her get it going in the first place.<\/p>\n

\"Peterrabbit25\"<\/a> Aside from everything else, the appeal to me was that a great deal of the first part of the film was about, well, book publishing. Yes, in a movie sort of way, but it’s always fun to see anxious authors being met with doubtful publishers onscreen, even if it’s set in the past. It’s a good film about the origins and nurturing of creativity and maintaining one’s vision in a sea of doubters who range from said publishers to parents. <\/p>\n

Zellwegger was good, although the way she twists her mouth up to express satisfaction that she, a proper young woman, shouldn’t express with any effusiveness, was a very <\/em>annoying gesture. I had read one review that suggested Emily Watson, who plays Beatrix’s publisher’s sister, would have been better suited to play Beatrix, and part of me says yes, just because I love Emily Watson, but I’m not quite sure. Behind his moustache, Ewan McGregor was fantastically charming. <\/p>\n

There are points at which Beatrix’s drawings come to life, as she interacts with them – expressing, I suppose, that these creatures have been her closest companions throughout her life. I was not sure if this would work at all, and I think the film would have done fine without them, but neither do they introduce some wildly obtrusive element, either. They sort of work.<\/p>\n

There are, naturally, some historical liberties taken  – the most serious one <\/a>being that it ignores Potter’s \"Page201\"<\/a> life as a very good, if often, frustratingly, ignored amateur scientist, something, if I very vaguely recall, was not ignored in the BBC mini-series on her life that aired ages and ages ago. In a way I can see leaving it out – it focuses the drama – but it would have been nice to see that side of her presented as well.<\/p>\n

No matter. It’s an enjoyable film – despite the bits of animation, not for young children, who would be bored, and there is a very, very sad event in the middle of the film. But teens – especially teen girls with a creative side and an independent spirit (which I hope is all of them) will enjoy it, I think. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katie and I went to see Miss Potter, the biopic of Beatrix Potter starring Renee Zellwegger at our local art film joint. It was quite good – better than I expected – especially the first 2\/3 of the film. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}