CBS
News Sunday Morning Reviews
-
Bridget
Jones's Diary -
Charles Osgood, John Leonard – April 8, 2001–
Transcript.
CHARLES OSGOOD,
CBS ANCHOR: John Leonard is here with a film review.
Good morning, John.
JOHN LEONARD, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Charles.
Salman Rushdie shows up early on in the delightful new movie "Bridget
Jones's Diary," as if J.D. Salinger or Thomas Pynchon had shown up in
"Charlie's Angels." This is at a cocktail party at the London
publishing house where Bridget works as a publicity assistant. Tongue-tied in
Rushdie's bearded presence, Bridget asks the satanic versifier which way to
the loo.
If you've read Helen Fielding's best-selling novel about Bridget, you already
know that she's 32 years old, 20 pounds overweight, smokes too many
cigarettes, drinks too much vodka, has no idea how to get anywhere and is
always late anyway. Even in her diary, she's an unreliable narrator of her own
life. On the other hand, wherever Bridget is will be a better place, because
she's there.
(VIDEO CLIP)
Sally Phillips: Watch
the step.
James Callis: She's fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEONARD
(voice-over): Renee Zellweger, eating chocolate and making lists, plays
Bridget to perfection. If I didn't know and hadn't told you, you'd never guess
she was born in Texas instead of London.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Renée Zellweger:
Where are all the other tarts and vicars?
Celia Imrie: Didn't Jeffrey call you?
James Faulkner: How is my little Bridget? Bop, bop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEONARD: Determined
to find true love before she is eaten by wild dogs, she rushes into the grabby
arms of Hugh Grant, her book-publishing boss, a dreamboat and a bounder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Hugh Grant: I'm king
of the world!
Renée Zellweger: You seem to go out of your way do make me feel like a
complete idiot every time I see you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEONARD: Simultaneously,
she resists the attentions of repressed barrister Colin Firth, a stuffed shirt
and noble noodle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Colin Firth: I know
there are elements of the ridiculous about you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEONARD: Her
flaky friends are not much help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Sally Phillips/James Callis/Shirley Henderson:
To Bridget, who cannot cook, but who we love. Just as she is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEONARD: But a
star is born anyway, magnetic and sarcastic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Renée Zellweger:
Bridget Jones, wanton sex goddess. Dad. Hi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEONARD:
Romantic comedy depends on timing, and "Bridget Jones' Diary"
tick-tocks like a music box.
Jane Austen would have loved Bridget, and so do I. And who knows about Salman
Rushdie? Bridget doesn't change; the rest of them have to in the wobble of her
gravity and the wonder of her grin. I can't tell you how pleasant it was to
meet her after so many movies and novels about crybaby 30-somethings who never
grow up to be more interesting than their immune systems; who seem to have
felt rotten ever since pampers; who, because they are too lazy, stoned or
solipsistic ever to have read a good book, mustered a fierce feeling or
surprised a coherent idea, are incapable of love, art, politics,
unselfishness, or even enthusiasm.
END
© 2001 CBS
Worldwide Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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