Children's author and artist Beatrix Potter led a fascinating life, but you'd never really know it from Chris Noonan's biopic, which turns one of English literature's more intriguing figures into a twee romantic heroine with standard-issue family problems. The film begins with the thirtysomething, unmarried Beatrix (Renee Zellweger) attempting to find someone to publish her charming children's stories, then trudges dutifully through her secret engagement to her eventual publisher Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor), a romance frowned upon by her stiff-upper-lip parents, who deplore the idea of her marrying a tradesman. There's a lot of familiar Victorian-era misogyny afoot here, and the film's presentation of Potter as an early icon of women's lib is actually fairly accurate.

But it's hard not to feel like there's something missing. The cast is likable enough, and the Lake District locations of the film's final act look marvelous. Noonan, the talented director behind the original Babe, adds some animated grace notes to scenes of Beatrix talking to her animal creations; if anyone is going to turn the cuteness quotient up to 11, it might as well be him. In classic Hollywood fashion, there's a general sense that our heroine has retained her child's-eye view of the world. Certainly, Zellweger plays her so, speaking haltingly and narrowing her eyes and scrunching her face together whenever attempting a smile. But the central paradox of Potter's life -- her struggle to be recognized for her remarkable adult accomplishments yet preserve that aforementioned childlike wonder -- feels underdeveloped, like a passing notion subsumed by the need to make a kid-friendly film for the holiday marketplace. There's more to Miss Potter than what's in Miss Potter. The film's excisions might not qualify as a crime, but they sure feel like a waste. -- Bilge Ebiri