Alex Bailey Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger star in Chris Noonan's "Miss Potter".

By Bob Hoover

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Her nose crinkling like Peter Rabbit beneath a deerstalker hat, Renee Zellweger is all but subsumed by her portrayal of Beatrix Potter in this handsome, at times moving, biography of the children's author and illustrator.

		'Miss Potter' Starring: Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson Director: Chris Noonan. Rating: PG for brief mild language. Web site: www.misspotter-themovie.com/ Related article Family Film Guide

The Texas-born actor also gets a few more miles out of that English accent she acquired for the "Bridget Jones" movies. Although she can't match up to co-stars Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson for true Englishness, Zellweger conveys the whimsy and spirit that might have sparked Potter's art.

When her first book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," was published in 1903, Potter was a single woman of 37 living with her wealthy parents in London. Oddly, the filmmakers subtract five years from her age at the time.

Potter's life was deemed a failure in English society because of her "advanced spinsterhood" and caused uneasiness between her and her strait-laced mother (Barbara Flynn), who insisted she be always chaperoned in public.

The inspiring story of how she gained independence is at the center of "Miss Potter," as this sheltered daughter of snobby social climbers struggles against convention but does it with one of the most benign acts of defiance -- kids' books about little critters who dress like people.

Potter's inspiration came from childhood days in England's Lake District, a place of picture-book loveliness that inspired Wordsworth as well. Captured here in soft colors, this landscape looks almost magical, as if painted by Potter herself.

Loving attention is lavished on the entire production, from the Potters' home decorated at Christmas to the idealized yeoman farmer scenes in the country.

Anglophiles will be hugging themselves with happiness watching "Miss Potter," buoyed by well-crafted performances by McGregor as Potter's publisher and first love, Norman Warne, and Watson as Warne's sister, Amelia, who became Potter's friend.

But this is Zellweger's film (she's listed as an executive producer), and she plays Potter with a fierce determination but little subtlety. When the script calls for her to talk to her imaginary "friends," she seems almost deranged.

That script itself is too slight, giving little attention to Potter's land conservation efforts and to the thousands of young fans of her little books. We are never shown the delight that those tales brought to children.

And that's all the pity (to sound like a character from this film), for that is how most of us first encountered Beatrix Potter and why we remember her today.