ALICIA POTTER

Rachel Getting Married

ALICIA POTTER — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:08:56 GMT

An exhausting march down the aisle
By the time the Ganesha cake is cut, you’re left with the poodle as the only family member worthy of empathy.

A Man Named Pearl

ALICIA POTTER — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:28:17 GMT

An earnest yet inspiring documentary
The film makes up for its lack of conflict with the quiet power of its imagery: a descendant of sharecroppers coaxing scrubby brush into great green gumdrops and sculptural swirls.

Baby Mama

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:11:07 GMT

Largely laugh-barren
Not even SNL’s whipsmart Tina Fey and Amy Poehler can save writer/director Michael McCuller’s pregnancy comedy from its fate as another condescending, self-congratulatory fantasy of maternal bliss.

P.S. I Love You

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:17:09 GMT

A middling effort for Hilary Swank
Gerry is the perfect dead man, showing up shirtless à la Ghost or in stagy flashbacks.

The Life of Reilly

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:17:49 GMT

Flamboyant revelations
Equally at ease reciting a soliloquy from Hamlet as he is imitating Meryl Streep, Reilly flips off those who dismiss him or, worse, think he’s dead.

Fred Claus

ALICIA POTTER — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:58:08 GMT

Bad Santa ripoff
As for infusing the ol’ ho-ho-ho, the most Christmasy moments for this reviewer arose whenever a nearby critic groaned, “Oh Christ!”

My Kid Could Paint That

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:07:06 GMT

A layered art-world exploitation
Marla Olmstead, the subject of Amir Bar-Lev’s absorbing documentary, at once reveals an artist’s temperament: dark moods, fits of inspiration, a reticence to discuss her work.

Arctic Tale

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:55:32 GMT

Whisker-close footage
All the same, this effort soundly delivers the inconvenient truth to the generation who’ll inherit it.

Eagle Vs. Shark

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:48:45 GMT

Passion ignites at an animal-themed costume party
Love means never having to admit you deserve better than a dour dork with nunchucks.

Surf's Up

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:54:58 GMT

Surf's Up wipes out
Is it coincidence or homage that a fat, sullen penguin in this animated dud resembles Michael Moore?

Bridge to Terabithia

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 22:32:05 GMT

Muddled, but at least there aren't any fart jokes
Walden Media, the movie production company behind Charlotte’s Web and The Chronicles of Narnia , works its adaptation alchemy on Katherine Paterson’s Newbery winner with the usual middling results. Watch the trailer for Bridge to Terabithia (QuickTime)

Bunny girl

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:25:19 GMT

Renée Zellweger’s Miss Potter doesn’t peter out
A film about one of the world’s bestselling children’s books and the ballsy British woman behind it marks the stirring return of Babe director Chris Noonan. Watch the trailer for Miss Potter (QuickTime)

VISIONARY: Zellweger (here with Ewan McGregor) provokes tears without sentimentality.

A film about one of the world’s bestselling children’s books and the ballsy British woman behind it marks the stirring return of Babe director Chris Noonan. We’re talking not Harry Potter but Beatrix (neither my relation), who in 1902 published the palm-sized picture book The Tale of Peter Rabbit to wild popularity. Yet despite the success of the bunny in the blue jacket and, later, 22 other stories of nattily attired critters, not everything was cute and fuzzy in the life of the author/illustrator — an irony made poignantly clear by the nuanced, Kleenex-sopping performance of Renée Zellweger.

In many ways, Zellweger’s Potter evokes her Bridget Jones (though her twitchy mannerisms channel Squirrel Nutkin). An over-30 London singleton with no prospects for marriage, Potter suffers a stifling Victorian existence under the roof of her social-climbing parents (Bill Paterson and Barbara Flynn). Her only “friends” are the wildlife of her watercolors — a bond forged in a lonely yet bucolic childhood, here smoothly depicted in flashbacks that draw on Noonan’s experience with chatty animals and patchwork landscapes. Indeed, Potter chastises and coos to her creations, and through delicate animation they waddle and scamper to life. The risky special effect is at first jarring, even precious, but because Noonan taps it sparingly, such whimsy illuminates Potter’s world view, the depth of her isolation, and in one affecting scene, her emotional and creative turmoil.

Yet A Beautiful Mind meets Doctor Dolittle this is not. (Still, Fur might have been a better title for this bio-pic than for the recent Diane Arbus flick.) Just as all the tut-tutting about Potter’s unmarried status becomes wearying, she falls for her admiring editor, Norman Warne (Ewan McGregor, looking as if he’d jumped off a Smith Bros. cough-drop box). The black sheep of a publishing family, Warne emerges a like-minded, if underdeveloped, rebel. Even greater sparks, however, fly between Potter and Warne’s spunky spinster sister. As played by Emily Watson, Millie Warne is one spirited reason to root for a Boston marriage. Nonetheless, Potter’s fight to love — and to be loved — despite her parents’ condemnation (they believe that tradesmen “carry dust”) intensifies the emotional stakes and compels Zellweger to tone down her usual puffy-cheeked mugging.

Charlotte's Web

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 18:40:13 GMT

Unravels fast
This live-action adaptation of E.B. White’s hallowed classic runs out of gas once the cows start farting. Watch the trailer for Charlotte's Web (QuickTime)

Flushed Away

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:27:49 GMT

Not just a title
In its first foray into computer animation, Aardman ( Wallace & Gromit ) retains its lovably lumpy, Claymation look. Watch the trailer for Flushed Away (QuickTime)

Flicka

ALICIA POTTER — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:12:29 GMT

Not worth saddling up
Director Michael Mayer’s tedious adaptation of Mary O’Hara’s 1941 novel about a boy and his filly swaps the lad for a teenage girl with daddy issues. Watch the trailer for Flicka (QuickTime)