For anyone who has not seen this movie, get yourself a copy, grab a cuppa tea, sit back and enjoy a delightful 2 hours!
Honestly, this is one of the loveliest movies I have watched in a long time. It was sweet, heartfelt and engaging right until the very end.
Well done Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, well done!
I stumbled upon Miss Potter through an email from PureFlix.com highlighting this week’s features. For those of you unfamiliar with Pureflix.com, think Nextflix without all the garbage; blood, guts, gore, nudity, etc. Pureflix.com is a movie membership channel that allow you to watch great clean movies, documentaries, VeggieTales and classic TV shows.
Back to Miss Potter, truth be told, I didn’t even know this movie existed, we’ll chalk it up to the fact that I don’t watch much cable!
However when the recommendation came through my email from PureFlix.com I jumped at the chance to watch it. I like both Renee and Ewan as actors so this was an easy one to say “yes” to but to honestly beyond who they are as actors I really had a very basic surface knowledge of who Beatrix Potter was and/or the children’s books she’d written. Maybe because I grew up reading Paddington Bear and Winnie the Poo, that I somehow missed Beatrix Potter’s stories, at any rate, I’m sorry I missed them in my younger years because truly Miss Potter had an excellent creative mind and artistic hand to create such lovely creatures as Peter Cottontail, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Jeremy Fisher and an entire host of delightful characters sure to delight children of all ages!
What captivated me about Miss Potter, was her life’s story. Born into an upper-middle class English family, Beatrix was afforded the great luxuries of traveling to Scotland, spending much time outdoors which only added to her love of animals, the countryside and fauna. This love of the outdoors not only spurred her imagination, allowing her to create an imaginary world filled with animal friends, it gave her the ability to transpose her thoughts into storylines and art.
Beatrix’s love for nature also carried on throughout her adult life where she created quite a name for herself through the study and artwork in mycology (the study of fungi) and through land preservation. Beatrix bought and later bequeathed over 4,000 acres of land to England’s National Trust for Places of Historic Interest.
What an amazingly creative brilliant woman! This movie depicts Beatrix’s talent, her love of nature, some of her heartaches and challenges and of course love.
I’ll watch this movie again and again because she inspired me. Beatrix, a woman in midst of the constraints of the English Victorian era found her voice, her talent and her skills and used them to not only better her own life but the lives of generations coming up behind her.
Well done Beatrix!
On a particularly enjoyable note were the tiny touches of her storybook characters, like Peter Rabbit coming to life through animation. They gave just enough of a visual to make us realize how real her characters were to her. It was as if in indeed they could jump off the pages of her books, wear delightfully smart looking jumpers and hats and engage with us, the audience as if they lived and breathed. These small touches endeared me to Beatrix as an artist and allowed me to see a glimmer of her heart as a naturalist and story teller.
This movie is an absolute keeper. A timeless story that each generation would do well to watch and learn from. The idea of following the passion set in your heart to pursue a career against societal norms, family approval and even tradition, to know that what you have to say is important and engaging to others is faultless. To further take your talent to better the world around you, is impeccable.
Until next time,
Best wishes,
