Of course, the scenery in the Lake Districts is amazing: it made me want to go back there... I once took a ferry across Lake Windermere, which is just as breathtakingly beautiful as the movie portrays it to be. Although the swans on the shore were just plain mean. The movie also made me want to pull out some of my Beatrix Potter stories. I may have to invite a few nephews or nieces over so I have an excuse to read them.
This week we watched the 2006 film Miss Potter, which is a partly true/ partly fictional biography of Beatrix Potter, famed children's author and illustrator. In it, Potter is a rather eccentric spinster who refers to the animals she paints and writes stories about as her "friends" and talks to them, fancifully imagining them becoming animated and leaping off the pages of her work. Attempting to get her stories published, she begins working with Norman Warne of the Warne publishing house. As her books go into print and become hugely popular, Beatrix and Norman gradually fall in love, to the dismay of her social climbing parents who regard Norman as a lowly tradesman. Norman and Beatrix become engaged despite this opposition, but her parents insist that she come with them on a three month vacation to the Lake District. They promise that, if the two still wish to marry after this period of separation, they won't oppose the match any longer. Beatrix and Norman write constantly to each other but unbeknownst to Beatrix, Norman has become quite ill and dies suddenly. The film doesn't say of what, but in real life he had leukemia. Devastated, Beatrix struggles to return to her books, only finding peace when she buys a farm in the Lake District and moves there to live and write. Now an extremely wealthy woman Beatrix, with the help of her lawyer William Heelis, begins buying up the land around her farm to be a nature preserve. As the film ends, we're told with a word scroll that some years later, she and William Heelis marry and when she dies, she donates her lands, which are now part of the Lake District National Park. I quite liked this film which, though somewhat fanciful, sticks pretty close to the actual facts of Potter's life. Renee Zellweger does a fine job as Beatrix, making her charmingly eccentric, socially awkward yet determined to succeed. Ewan McGregor is also extremely likable as Norman Warne, sweet and enthusiastic and very supportive of Beatrix's work. It is rather endearing to see these two somewhat shy, lonely souls find in each other a kindred spirit, making it all the more tragic when Beatrix loses the one person who truly understands her. Of course, the scenery in the Lake Districts is amazing: it made me want to go back there... I once took a ferry across Lake Windermere, which is just as breathtakingly beautiful as the movie portrays it to be. Although the swans on the shore were just plain mean. The movie also made me want to pull out some of my Beatrix Potter stories. I may have to invite a few nephews or nieces over so I have an excuse to read them.
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About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
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