Bridget Jones's Diary Review
by Tim Wick

Well crud.

Nobody likes seeing a bad movie more than I do. Now, we have to be talking the right kind of bad movie. I have skipped Freddy Got Fingered and Tomcats because a bad comedy isn't entertaining - it's boring. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that there seems to have been a dearth of bad films for me to sink my teeth into. I have been forced to watch entertaining films like Bridget Jones's Diary because it's all that I can find.

Thank goodness A Knights Tale opens in a few weeks!

Until then, let's talk about the engaging film I actually implied I was going to review.

Bridget Jones's Diary is the third installment in the "Comedies starring Renee Zellweger that include the name of her character in the title" series. The first two, Me, Myself and Irene and Nurse Betty were, in order, engaging but a little drab and one of the best films of 2000. I could wonder why Renee's films seem to feature a title character's name in the title (her breakthrough film was, you'll recall, Jerry Maguire), but that is just silly.

Zellweger could well be defining herself as one of the better actresses in Hollywood for the next ten years. Bridget Jones ultimately hinges on the performance of the actress playing - well - Bridget Jones. As the only non-British member of the cast, Zellweger could have easily stuck out - especially given her characters decidedly British behavior (although she measures her weight in pounds, not kilograms - a clear cave in to American sensibilities). Instead, she manages to blend in. She went through the trouble to gain about twenty pounds (that looked quite good on her, actually) and had a good dialect coach. I was amused to note that the chain smoking Jones was clearly played by a non-smoker as Zellweger never actually put a cigarette into her mouth despite the fact there was always on in her hand.

Hugh Grant plays a - surprise - charming, quirky Englishman with whom Bridget has an affair. The real surprise is that although the character is pretty much the same as every other character Grant has played, he is actually something of a cad rather than a nice guy. Didn't change the performance any, just the lines he was reading. I like Grant even though he's a one trick pony. He handled the variation of his usual trick pretty well.

The film is basically your typical romantic comedy set up (ah Spring, when Hollywood's fancy turns to romantic comedies) with a romantically challenged Bridget searching for love and meaning. She meets Mr. Wrong (Grant) and Mr. so-wrong-he's-probably-right (Colin Firth) and many wacky hijinks ensue. That's romantic comedy in a nutshell. You laugh, you cry, you wince and you wait for the two characters that should be together to finally get together. To read more into it is to be a critic for Entertainment Weekly.

The difference is that these characters are not fashion models. I liked Someone Like You but does anyone think that Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd would have that much trouble getting into a good relationship? On the contrary, they would be tired of sweet young things tripping all over each other to buy them drinks. Bridget is a neurotic, boozing, slightly overweight (though by no means fat), smoker. She is such a bundle of imperfections (and she knows it) that when she is told that one of her suitors like her "just the way she is," it is easy to see why that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to her.

Let me be clear for you feminists out there that Bridget thinks of herself as overweight which is why I refer to her that way. Frankly, she doesn't look dumpy at all and it's a little spooky to think that Zellweger needed to shed the weight once the film was over. I've not heard a sadder commentary on Hollywood in quite some time.

In any case, Bridget and her neurotic friends and lovers are the reason this film rises above typical romantic comedy fare. As I restlessly search for a piece of crap on which to heap disdain, I guess I will have to content myself with watching stuff I enjoy. Boy, it's hard to be me.

Bridget Jones's Diary

Four Beakers
(out of five)

Search This Site