For those who aren't itching for more big explosions and yippee kai yay exclamations, there's another DVD that's hitting the stands today -- Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor's Miss Potter. The film, which was in theaters earlier this year, is based on the life of Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit and the famous collection of children's books and merchandise that came after it. While by no means a complete portrait of her life, the film delves into the progressively-minded storyteller/artist as she fights to free herself of her parental restraints and be her own woman during the first years of the 20th century.

Having been inundated with Potter paraphernalia as a child, I was curious to get a look into the famous woman's life. How does the film work? It's not terrible, but not terribly great either. Unfortunately, the movie starts with Zellweger doing a voice-over which is way too much like Bridget Jones, so it takes a bit to wipe memories of the actress' previous role and get into the life of Beatrix. Beyond that, Miss Potter is one of those stories that gives genuine moments of laughter and sadness, intermingled with real-life happenings, but it's also one without a strong focus. Sure, our attention is directed towards Potter, but you're not sure in what context -- a love story, a story of female power, a story of family or a story of friendship. While each of these elements is present, it's not in a fluid way. This would be okay with a non-linear story, but in this context, it makes for uneven storytelling.

She was born in Katy, Texas, but her father comes from Switzerland and her mother hails from Norway. Plus, she spent quite a bit of time in Romania while filming Cold Mountain. Thus it makes perfect sense that Renée Zellweger will be attending the 42nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which will be held June 29-July 7 in the Czech Republic. She will be presenting Miss Potter, in which she starred as children's author Beatrix Potter. That film received mixed reviews, but happily the Karlovy Vary festival itself has an excellent, long-standing reputation as a place to discover new talent from Eastern Europe. The festival also includes a lovely selection of films from around the world and is known for its widely-varied retrospectives.

For example, the Shochiku Nouvelle Vague sidebar features seven films made in the early 1960s by three Japanese directors (Yoshishige Yoshida, Masahiro Shinoda, Nagisa Oshima). Shinoda is expected to attend; his Samurai Spy -- which will be screened -- is available on DVD from Criterion. Another sidebar of note is Variety Critics' Choice, in which the trade publication's film critics offer their selection of ten overlooked favorites. The films range from slasher flick to psychological drama to comedy (note the original critic/review): Dead in 3 Days (Derek Elley), Hotel Very Welcome (Derek Elley), Fissures (Robert Koehler), True North (Eddie Cockrell), Hyena (Leslie Felperin), Cold Feet (Leslie Felperin), Parting Shot (Derek Elley), The Distance (Jonathan Holland), Prague (Eddie Cockrell; also reviewed by Cinematical's Martha Fischer), Someone Else (Derek Elley). The original reviews are not all entirely positive, but good enough to make my mouth water. The full line-up of more than 200 films will be announced shortly.

A critic's job, to boil it down, is to measure the emotional response a movie has on him or her, and then figure out a way to intellectually analyze this emotional response. Sometimes you'll hear critics explain that it's much easier to review a bad movie or a good movie than a "just OK" movie. "Just OK" movies do little to inspire an emotional response, and the critic must go about his or her duty trying to explain whether or not anyone should go see this movie that everyone will most likely forget.

I've become increasingly irritated by "just OK" movies, and it comes down to this: I would rather see a bad movie with personality than a decent movie with no personality at all. It's far worse walking out of something passionless and mechanical than from something that tried and failed.

Do you like being second best? I don't, but when it comes to lead in a Chris Noonan film, I'd say fine -- so be it. Renee Zellweger definitely didn't have a problem with it -- as far as we know -- since she took the lead in the well-received Miss Potter. Apparently, Zellweger was not at all Noonan's first choice for the lead; instead, it was the brilliant Cate Blanchett whom Noonan adores. Noonan even considers Blanchett to be equivalent to one of Hollywood's greatest actresses, Katherine Hepburn, whom Blanchett portrayed in The Aviator.

What was the reason for Blanchett's departure from the film? She had the role originally but was forced to give it up for an unreported reason -- but she was as reluctant to give up the role as Noonan was for letting her go. Apparently, Blanchett begged for him to postpone production, but Noonan put it perfectly when he said: "the machine won't stand still."

Even though Zellweger was runner-up for the part of Beatrix Potter, director Noonan was not disappointed in her performance or the end result of the film. Perhaps it was a happy accident for Noonan as he discovered Zellweger to be a joy to work with. The West Australian quotes Noonan describing Zellweger as humble: "She is not a star and doesn't play a star. So you lose the Renee Zellweger when she is playing Beatrix Potter and I think that is remarkable." We all know the saying: as one door closes another one opens -- and as one great actress must decline an incredible project, another remarkable actress must step in.

Time has a way of making certain movies disappear, while others remain classics forever. Does anyone today remember Gordy, the other talking pig movie that came out just a few months before Babe in 1995? Director Chris Noonan, who received a Best Director Oscar nomination for Babe, does.

"I knew the director of that film," says Noonan during a recent visit to San Francisco, where he sat down for a chat with Cinematical. "I didn't know he was planning a talking pig movie. He told me that he was very interested in what I was doing, and he'd love to see a script. So I sent him a script of Babe, just as a sort of colleague-friendly gesture, well before we shot it. And then Gordy came out soon after. And I haven't actually spoken to him since then."

One of the great tragedies in the current onslaught of biopics is that they seem to have adopted a movie formula, as if any old person's life could be crammed into the same three-act structure. (Aren't human beings supposed to be as different as snowflakes?) The most brutally obvious recent examples were Ray (2004) and Walk the Line (2005), which, as we speak, are probably inadvertently merging the legends of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash into interchangeable tidbits.

Chris Noonan's Miss Potter doesn't rectify this situation, but it does move in a different direction, into a more fanciful realm. It's more interested in capturing the essence of its subject -- children's author Beatrix Potter -- than in providing a checklist of the things she accomplished. Like a smoother Finding Neverland (2004), it moves away from reality and into movieland, which at least is more honest than falsely representing reality. Miss Potter starts badly and ends badly, but a good, solid hour in the middle is as charming as anything you'll see this holiday season. It's actually a perfect movie to see on Christmas Day between presents and dinner.

John Patterson has an interesting article up over on The Guardian carping about the liberties Hollywood has taken in adapting classics of British children's literature. The most recent offender, of course, is Miss Potter, directed by Australian Chris Noonan and starring Texan Renée Zellweger as Britain's beloved best-selling author, rather than any number of British actresses who could have played the part.

Patterson is (mostly, at least) tongue-in-cheek -- at least I think he is, I don't always grok British humor. But this is, after all, the same chap who, in writing about the religious right witch-hunting animated films, called Bugs Bunny a "flagrant naturist" and said of Foghorn Leghorn that he's "all about the cock" -- something that most American writers would be way too uptight to dare to say in print. Any writer who goes after Dr. James Dobson for labeling Spongebob Squarepants a "nellie" just because he holds hands with his best friend Patrick and watches "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" is okay in my book.

According to Variety, as soon as Renée Zellweger finishes filming Miss Potter, she'll trade the nice world of bunnies and children's fiction for a much darker, scarier one: that of social work. Ah! Run away! Oh all right, so social work isn't ALWAYS scary. In the case of Zellweger's Case 39, though, it is. Trust me. She plays a social worker, see, who does her job [insert comment about the difference between her chracter and New York City social workers here] and removes an abused girl from the home of her parents. It turns out, however, that "the parents are not the real problem." Now, if this movie wasn't being described as a "horror-thriller," I'd assume that meant that teachers, or neighbors, or other relatives were involved. In this case, though, I think it's safe to assume that the problem ain't a human one. Seriously though -- how the hell is she supposed to deal with abusive ghosts?! As if social work isn't hard enough already, now she's supposed to be protecting a kid from things that aren't there?

The movie is scheduled to start shooting in July; one hopes Paramount can track down a director by then, otherwise Renee, the kid and her ghosts are going to be doing a whole lot of waiting. (Actually, maybe that's not such a bad idea -- it could give Zellweger time to eat something.)

Monday's odds and ends:

• The Weinstein Company has acquired the rights to Miss Potter, the Renée Zellweger-starrer about Peter Rabbit creator Beatrix Potter. Due out some time next year, the movie "follows Potter's struggles to overcome a domineering, unsupportive mother and the chauvinism of Victorian England."

• In addition to people who think he's ripping off their work, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has also offended The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentationare. Yeah, sure Dan. You never write about an albino until you throw in one that's "hulking." They know how it is with you fully-pigmented people. According to Brown, however, Silas (the albino) is "a far more sympathetic character than anyone else in the novel." Having not read the book, I am unable to confirm or deny Brown's assertion but, since Silas is played by Paul Bettany in the movie, I can confidentially assert that at the very least, the albino is far better looking than any of the other characters.
  

• Susan Sarandon is in talks to star in a planned biopic about human-thorn-in-W's-side Cindy Sheehan. Sweet - I can't wait for wave two of the rabid articles about how out of touch Hollywood is with Mainstream America.

• New Line has bought the rights to a spec script entitled Disappearance of Trout and, even without knowing what it's about, it's hard to blame them. I mean, the whole field of movies with the names of fish in the title is WIDE open, and we all know how rare originality is in Hollywood these days. Disappointingly, the movie doesn't actually seem be about fish. Instead, it's a fantasy story about a young amusement park heir who disappears only to return 20 years later, "unaged, to help repair the lives of those once close to him and the heart of the town." Um, cool. Hell, I'd see that even if it didn't have "Trout" in the title.
  

I'm not exactly sure what led anyone to believe that there would be an audience for a movie about Beatrix Potter - the creator of Peter Rabbit - and her "struggle for independence in Victorian England," but there's one on the way, so hopes must be high. The movie, which will combine live action with animation (Perhaps she was secretly insane, and Peter Rabbit was actually a good friend?), is to be called Miss Potter, and will be directed by Chris Noonan, an Aussie who wrote and directed Babe so, if nothing else, he'll be able to handle the live/animated mix without difficulty.

Starring in the film are Renée Zellweger, who will play the author, and Ewan McGregor as publisher Norman Warne, whose death from leukemia a month after his secret engagement to Potter was a turning point in her life. Additionally, Emily Watson has recently joined the cast in an undermined role.

Slated for a 2007 release, the movie begins filming in early March.