...a bit too slick, too cynical, and too routine for me.
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Think of the horror and tragedy that must come with being a slightly overweight, cigarette-addicted, thirty-two-year-old, single, white female. That´s the premise of this 2001 romantic comedy from the same British writer, producers, and star (Richard Curtis, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Hugh Grant) who brought us "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill." But is the premise enough to sustain a ninety-minute movie? It wasn´t for me, despite a good performance by Renee Zellweger in the title role and Grant and Colin Firth in supporting roles. Sadly, given its roots, "Bridget Jones´s Diary" never fully comes to comedic life, seldom reaches out emotionally, and provides few new insights into the perils of love and dating. "Bridget" was a disappointment, given my appreciation of its antecedents. It´s a close call, but ultimately "Bridget" is not a great or even near-great genre film, merely a routine, formulaic one.
This one is based on the best-selling novel by Helen Fielding, based in turn on her highly popular series of newspaper columns, with a plot taken from Jane Austen´s "Pride and Prejudice." It stars American actress Renee Zellweger as the somewhat plump and paranoid British single, Bridget Jones. Ms. Zellweger had to affect an English accent and gain about thirty pounds for the role, both of which she accomplishes nicely. However, I never thought she was anywhere near the size and weight that made her look as unattractive as her character seems to think she is (perhaps the film´s comment on some people´s misguided sense of self-esteem). Fact is, Bridget is a very pretty woman with intelligence and wit, which is perhaps why, in spite of her lack of self confidence, she is able to interest two handsome men in her life.
The men are ably played by Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Grant plays Daniel Cleaver, Bridget´s boss in a publishing house where Bridget is a PR assistant. Doffing his usual shy, stammering, Mr. Nice Guy persona for a welcome change, Grant is still charming as a delightfully roguish cad indifferent to commitment. Firth plays Mark Darcy, at first a stuffy, boring, arrogant barrister, who slowly in the course of the film warms up as a person and to Bridget in particular. The author has said that she had Firth in mind for the role of Darcy ever since she saw him in the television production of "Pride and Prejudice," playing, of course, Mr. Darcy!
Anyway, as the movie begins Bridget´s love life is in the pits; then, she notices and is noticed by her boss, Daniel. She soon begins an affair with him that before long she sees is going nowhere. Her aim is love and marriage. His aim is avoidance of the words "love" or "marriage." Rejected by Daniel´s infidelity, she quits her job and finds a new one in broadcasting, soon becoming a minor television celebrity due to her spunk and candor on a tabloid-type show called "Sit Up Britain."
Zellweger is the best thing about the movie, and if you don´t find her admittedly ebullient personality enough to pique your curiosity, as I didn´t, you´re in for a long haul. She narrates the film as one might be reading a diary, and she´s in every scene. There is little plot, and the story is for all intents and purposes a straightforward character study. In this regard, the newspaper-column background of the story and character show through. Perhaps I was slightly prejudiced going in because as I was waiting for my wife to arrive to watch the film with me, I started reading a few of the newspaper articles that are included on the DVD and found them singularly tedious and unamusing. I was reminded that TV´s "Tales of the City" was also taken from a series of newspaper columns that I had read years ago in the San Francisco Chronicle, but those old stories had an outrageous campiness about them that kept one going back. Maybe this was a British thing, I thought, before watching the picture.
Well, the movie turned out better than the newspaper columns, but not enough to maintain my interest for long. As I said, Bridget is the center of attention here, and if we don´t take to her, little else works. Zellweger makes her character funny, vulnerable, and sympathetic, but not entirely involving. Bridget is sweet and lovable and smarter than she thinks, but that´s about all. Still, as people say about her, they love her "just as she is." The hard part to believe is that before the movie´s over she has these two handsome, intelligent guys literally fighting over her in the street.
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