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| Endearing without being especially engaging. |
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| (Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide) |
| The problem confronting writer Richard Maltby Jr. and director Chris Noonan is that Potter lived a fairly uneventful life once you remove her success as an author. |
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| (Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter) |
| The movie is at once a flagrant piece of kitsch and an unexpectedly affecting story about an individual overcoming personal tragedy and brutally restrictive circumstances by talent and force of will. |
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| (Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times) |
| Chris Noonan's Miss Potter continues a rather long line of films that attempt to diagnose the creative process of a writer and the critical world that surrounds the writer's inherent social (emotional) ineptitude. There are moments where Miss Potter seems to be on the right track in feeling out the emotional trajectory of its main character, but it often chooses the route of greater cuteness over the challenges of trying to study the life of a writer. |
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| (Chris Cabin, filmcritic.com) |
| Poor Zellweger barely gets the chance to do anything besides grin and smirk, and occasionally furrow her brow or grimace into a gloved hand. So it's not surprising that Watson commands the screen with a performance that's both subtler and more outrageous, capturing the true spark of an artistic, strong woman at a time when neither trait was encouraged. Meanwhile, McGregor is charm personified, with a couple of startlingly potent scenes. |
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| (Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall) |
| Children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter may've had a penchant for fluffy bunnies and bonnet-donning ducks, but Renee Zellweger plays her like a bull in a silk bustle in Miss Potter. It's perfect casting for this charming and inspiring story of a woman who strains against her corseted existence in the 1900s, to fulfil a childhood dream. Chris Noonan (who last directed Babe) conveys all the whimsy of her inner world, although apparently, at the expense of major supporting characters... It's the combination of Zellweger's charismatic, scrubbed face turn and Noonan's empathy for Potter's streak of silliness that wins the day. As she sketches Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck, they spring to life in enchanting animation. But these magic moments are also a poignant reminder of the loneliness that plagues Potter who repeatedly insists, "They are my friends". The film is a guaranteed tearjerker, but more than that, an uplifting tribute to a single woman's quest for independence that would surely make Bridget Jones blush. |
| (Stella Papamichael, BBCi) |
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, Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson
