Bridget Jones's Diary

By James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk

Bridget Jones's Diary, based on the extremely popular 1998 novel by Helen Fielding, presents us with a completely flawed, yet utterly lovable heroine who is so fundamentally human that it is impossible not to identify with her, even in her most absurd moments of embarrassment. 

The story, which is a vague update of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, takes us through a year of Bridget's life, from Christmas to Christmas (that excruciating time of the year when singletons are reminded by everyone that they are, still, single). The plot is generally straightforward and quite predictable, but that doesn't detract much from the movie's enjoyment because the pleasure is in watching the characters react and interact, try and fail, persevere and redeem themselves. For those who have read the novel, the movie takes a more romantic turn, but Bridget's all-too-human insecurities, obsessions, and foibles are kept in-tact and provide most of the comedy. 

For those not familiar with the novel, Bridget (Renee Zellweger) is a single Londoner in her early 30s who smokes and drinks a little too much, has the bad tendency to put her foot in her mouth, and is always 20 pounds heavier than she wants to be. After a disastrous holiday party at her parents' house in which her busybody mother, Pam (Gemma Jones), attempts to set her up with a dullard of a divorced barrister named Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), Bridget decides that she will spend the next year improving herself. She buys a diary and sets about losing weight, cutting back on alcohol and nicotine, and finding a good, stable, boyfriend. 

Of course, like most new year's resolutions, most of these fall by the wayside within the first few days of the new year. Bridget soon finds herself gaining weight, drinking more, and engaging in a throwaway sexual affair with her boss, a snaky, womanizing workaholic named Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) who is, nonetheless, a "sex god." A few not-unexpected plot developments later (snakes will be snakes, after all), Bridget finds herself spending time with Mark Darcy of all people, who keeps popping up everywhere she goes and, over time, turns out to be not as dull as she first thought. 

Bridget Jones's Diary is ultimately not about what happens in the story; it is about tone. The movie isa light-hearted, very funny, but also quite truthful riff on modern female insecurities and the way society and family create walls of pressure on those who are not married by the time they are 30. Bridget is a comic creation, yet she is no caricature; her humanity draws us into identifying with her, which is a sometimes painful experience considering how adept she is at humiliating herself in front of others. 

Much of Bridget's appeal can be credited to Renee Zellweger's wonderfully un-self-conscious performance. The movie's title card appears over a scene of Zellweger, alone in her apart and drunk, singing along (actually, belting along) with Jamie O'Neal's schmaltzy '70s ode to self-pity "All by Myself." It immediately establishes both Bridget's current position in life and Zellweger's willingness to drop all movie-star pretensions and dig deep into the role. 

Some balked at the idea of an American actress playing this British character (who can now be described as a British icon), but not only does Zellweger maintain a plausible accent throughout, but she truly makes the character her own. Ever since she burst on the scene in Jerry Maguire in 1996, Zellweger has excelled at playing down-to-earth characters who are admirable in their strengths and believable in their vulnerabilities. Bridget Jones is not exactly a pillar of strength, but she is at least trying to improve her life. Zellweger plays Bridget just right, highlighting her insecurities and doubts without turning her into a complete neurotic. She gained 20 pounds to play the role, and despite being pudgy and often unflatteringly costumed, Zellweger gives Bridget an air of irrepressible sexuality. 

The two male leads are also quite good, which is key because their characters are elevated to a more central role than they played in the book. Hugh Grant plays against type as the cad who breaks Bridget's heart. Grant shows a nice flare for being smarmy, and he uses his charming boyishness to devious ends (his general likeability as an actor is crucial because, after all, we have to believe that Bridget would fall for him). Colin Firth has a somewhat trickier role, because he has to go from being a boring, mother-dominated nerd in the beginning of the film to a plausible leading man by the end. To his credit, he does this very well without shedding the character's basic traits. 

Bridget Jones's Diary was directed by first-timer Sharon Maguire, who shows a good knack for both comedy and romance. Maguire lets the scenes of broad comedy, such as Bridget's disastrous first attempt to do a televised interview, play out in a kind of slapstick fashion. But, she also shows a gentle touch, such as the scene between Bridget and her father (Jim Broadbent), who has recently been left by Bridget's mother for the host of a TV shopping channel (Broadbent's comments about the ever-changing nature of the host's fake tan are some of the funniest lines in the movie). 

Richard Curtis (Notting Hill) and Andrew Davies (who wrote the 1995 BBC miniseries version of Pride & Prejudice) provide a solid screenplay that streamlines the book and focuses more intently on the slowly evolving romantic triangle between Bridget and Mark and Daniel. As much of the enjoyment of the novel was Bridget's prose and obsessive cataloguing of her condition, Curtis and Davies wisely maintain the basic structuring device of the diary with voice-over narration, but turn to the Renee Zellweger to come through on the central performance, which, thankfully, she does.