Review of Miss Potter (2006) by Chads. — 03 Jun 2007

After a crucial plot point relatively late in "Miss Potter", the narrative starts to slacken, because frankly, other than her depression(which the film gives short shrift to), nothing truly remarkable happens in Beatrix Potter's life after her initial rush of fame.

This film makes the mistake of covering too much time. "Miss Potter" is at its best when the famed writer of "Peter Rabbit" sits at her drafting table, and like a proto-Tori Amos, treats the imaginary realm as if it were an extension of the physical world.

Because of the times, much prejudice and ridicule were levelled against any girl who aspired to be more than a wife and mother, especially when her weapon of transcendence was thought to be a man's domain.

"Miss Potter" largely doesn't mess up the excitement behind the feminist gambit that a woman can do anything she sets her mind to. If Potter was a murder-mystery writer, life would've imitated art; every character in the film benefits from the catastrophic blow that befalls the writer's personal and professional life.

But Potter wrote children's books, and the film deals with her sadness in a very unrigorous manner.