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BOB
EDWARDS, 13 April 2001–
Transcript.
BOB EDWARDS, host: "Bridget Jones's Diary" and its
blow-by-blow descriptions of romantic crises is more than just a novel for its
numerous fans. The London Evening Standard proclaimed that the book's 'protagonist
is no mere fictional character. She is the spirit of the age.' With that kind
of buildup, a movie version was inevitable, and it opens in theaters today.
Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has this review.
KENNETH TURAN reporting: "The Bridget Jones's Diaries" have
sold five million copies in 32 countries, and that success led not one or two,
but four heavyweight film companies - Miramax, Universal, Studio Canal and
Working Title - to combine on "Bridget Jones's Diary" the movie. But
instead of being suffocated under all that weight, the film has prospered.
It's a cheerful entertainment that makes literary jokes, and succeeds by
mixing knockabout farce with a flighty 30-something heroine and a fairy-tale
romance.
(Soundbite of "Bridget Jones's Diary")
Mr. JIM BROADBENT: (As Colin Jones) Have you got a boyfriend, a real
one?
Ms. RENEE ZELLWEGER: (As Bridget Jones) I have, Father. I have. And
he's perfect.
(Soundbite of horn honking, music, car door slamming, motor being revved up.)
Ms. ZELLWEGER: (As Bridget Jones) Hurrah. I am no longer tragic
spinster, but proper girlfriend of bona fide sex god.
TURAN: It also doesn't hurt to have the kind of talent that
"Bridget Jones" attracted. Top British actors Hugh Grant and Colin
Firth, both of whom figure in the book, play Bridget's competing suitors.
Also, two of Britain's sharpest screenwriters, Richard Curtis of "Notting
Hill" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and Andrew Davies of
the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice," combine with
"Bridget's" creator, Helen Fielding, on the script. First-time
director Sharon Maguire and the screenwriters have pared down parts of the
book and pumped up others.
(Soundbite from "Bridget Jones's Diary")
Ms. ZELLWEGER: (As Bridget Jones) Resolution number one: Will find a
nice, sensible boyfriend to go out with and not continue to form romantic
attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment
phobics, peeping Toms, megalomaniacs or perverts. And especially will not
fantasize about a particular person who embodies all these things.
Unfortunately, he just happens to be my boss, Daniel...
TURAN: Perhaps the most crucial talent on the team is not a Brit, but
the Texas-born actress who plays Bridget, Renée Zellweger. An unlikely choice
for the part, Zellweger mastered the British accent and put on a by-now
well-publicized 20 pounds to play the pudgy Jones. What she also brings is a
potent vulnerability, an empathy she creates by allowing her feelings to play
nakedly on her face. And because this is largely a comedy of embarrassment, it
helps that Zellweger is more than willing to look bad in intentionally
unflattering costumes and situations.
(Soundbite from "Bridget Jones's Diary")
Ms. ZELLWEGER: (As Bridget Jones) You seem to go out of your way to try
to make me feel like a complete idiot every time I see you, and you really
needn't bother. I already feel like an idiot most of the time anyway.
COLIN FIRTH: I don't think you're an idiot at all. I know there are
elements of the ridiculous about you.
TURAN: Bridget is a character who drinks too much, smiles too hard and
puts the wrong foot forward at every opportunity, but she saunters her way
through it all with zest and spirit. Maybe she is, quote, "ever so
slightly less elegant under pressure than Grace Kelly," but her resilient
good-heartedness is what the film is all about. In the end, while Bridget's
search for inner poise may be doomed, her film is anything but.
EDWARDS: The comments of Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles
Times.
©
2001 National Public Radio, Inc. All rights reserved.
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