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From
big pants and Paxman to doughnuts and turkey curry, By Nick Curtis, The Evening Standard A
is for Austria - Renee Zellweger’s weight-obsessed Bridget is whisked
off for a romantic minibreak in Lech am Arlberg by Colin Firth’s Mark
Darcy, a wealthy lawyer who is now her boyfriend. Bridget’s claim to
be an able skier is disproved when she falls off a ski-lift in a
shocking-pink snowsuit. A is also for arch-adaptor Andrew Davies, who
gets top screenwriting credit on the film, above Richard Curtis,
Bridget’s creator Helen Fielding and Adam Brooks. B is for Bangkok and Big Knickers - during a holiday in Thailand with her
friend Jude (Shirley Henderson) Bridget bumps into, and almost falls
for, old flame Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), and is subsequently accused
of smuggling drugs. B is also, of course for Bridget. C is for Cutting Room Floor - the hilarious hunting scene in Helen
Fielding’s novel was filmed but cut from the final movie. C is also
for Chiswick Park, where the television studios of Sit Up Britain, the
programme on which Bridget works, and is routinely humiliated, are
located. Finally, C is for the world’s biggest Cad, Daniel Cleaver. D is for Diary, and for Diet - Bridget is forever writing in one and
falling off the other. D is also for Debenhams, where Bridget and her
mother go shopping together (BJ never was a Selfridges girl). Finally, D
is for the slightly dull Mark Darcy. E is for ex-EastEnder - the dishy Paul Nichols (formerly Joe Wicks in the
BBC soap) crops up here as a chancer who flirts with Jude in Thailand
and then plants narcotics in her luggage. We wondered what he’d been
up to ... F
is for Fags - the new film sees Bridget once again battling the demon
nicotine and itemising her consumption in her new diary. F is also for
Fourteen, the dress size Zellweger attained for the film, thanks to a
rigid diet of pasta, pizza and doughnuts. G is for Green Dragon Court - Bridget’s bachelorette apartment on this
venerable Southwark street, just round the corner from Borough Market
and the historic Globe pub. G is also for Girdle - one of the funniest
scenes features Bridget being shoehorned into a tummy-retaining garment
by a straining shop assistant. G also stands for “graphic shag
flashback” - what Bridget tells Mark she’s just had, not realising
she’s on speakerphone and he’s in a meeting with the Mexican
ambassador. H is for Huge Hindquarters - in a running gag continued from the first
film, Bridget goes skydiving for Sit Up Britain, and her landing gives
viewers a shot of her ample rear. H is also for Helen Fielding, who
originally invented Bridget in a newspaper column. I is for Infidelity - Bridget suspects Mark of it, and almost commits it
with Daniel. J is Jacinda and Jamie - Jacinda Barrett, the unknown Australian actress
who plays Mark’s intern Rebecca, is already being hailed as the new
Keira Knightley, while singer Jamie Cullum is a welcome replacement for
Geri Halliwell on the soundtrack. J is also for Jany Temime, the
film’s costume designer, and therefore responsible for all of
Bridget’s most embarrassing outfits. K is for Kensington Gardens - Mark Darcy’s house is on the
multimillionaires’ road in the Royal Borough - obviously lawyers’
fees are in the ascendant. K is also for director Beeban Kidron, who
took over the reins of the sequel when original director Sharon Maguire
(the close friend on whom Helen Fielding modelled the character of
Shazza) was unavailable. L is for Lesbian - although there are no Sapphic encounters in the
original novel, in the film Bridget gets a smacker planted on her by
Rebecca (Jacinda Barrett), the beauty she had previously suspected of
fancying Mark Darcy. The snog took six takes to film. M is for Magic Mushrooms - Bridget unwisely goes tripping on the
hallucinogenic fungi in Thailand. M is also for Middle Temple, where
Bridget embarrasses Mark at a huge legal dinner. And finally, M is for
millions: more than 10.5 million copies of Bridget Jones’s Diary have
been sold worldwide, and more than five million copies of the sequel,
netting author Helen Fielding an estimated [pounds sterling]17 million
fortune. N is for Naughtiness - you just can’t trust that Daniel Cleaver. Bridget
is about to succumb to his charms in Bangkok when a transsexual Thai
prostitute he has hired turns up. O is for Olivia Joules - the heroine of Helen Fielding’s latest novel, a
spoof spy story, for which the film rights have not yet been sold. Plans
for a third Bridget Jones film, however, are already underway, despite
the absence of a third Bridget Jones book. P is for Paxman - echoing the cameos by Salman Rushdie and Jeffrey Archer
in the original film, Newsnight’s arch-inquisitor Jeremy Paxman gets a
taste of his own medicine from Daniel Cleaver in the sequel. P is also
for Primrose Hill, where Bridget and Darcy frolic at the beginning of
the film, in a pastiche of The Sound of Music. Finally, P is for Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, to which Helen Fielding acknowledges her
debt for the plot (and certain character names) of Bridget’s
adventures. Q is for Question - “The question is,” says Bridget, “once you’ve
found true love, how do you make it last forever?” R is for Richard Curtis - the screenwriter who not only matches his script
for the original BJ movie, but also atones here for the schmaltz of
Love, Actually. R is also for Restaurant - Bridget’s favourite, 192 in
Notting Hill, closed before the second film started shooting. S is for the Serpentine Gallery - Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver come to
blows at the Kensington art emporium, in an inept, girly fight that tops
their tussle in the first film. S is also for Bridget’s friend Shazza
(Sally Phillips) and for Shags - Bridget estimates that she and Mark
have had 71 between the first movie and the second. T
is for Turkey Curry Buffet - as in the first film, the Edge of Reason
opens at Bridget’s mother’s annual, inedible, post-Christmas feast.
T is is also for Tower Bridge, where Bridget and Mark have a massive
argument after their lawyers’ dinner, and for Tory - liberal Bridget
is shocked to find that Mark votes Conservative. U is for Underpants - not just Bridget’s infamous big knickers (which
get another airing in the sequel) but also Darcy’s. The fact that he
folds his pants is one of the reasons Bridget goes off him. V is for Vows - after their marital problems in the first film,
Bridget’s parents renew their marital oaths in the second (and force
Bridget to wear a hideous lavender frock). V is also for V. V. Good is
undoubtedly Bridget’s opinion of the second film bearing her name. W is for Wet - Mark and Daniel end up in a fountain after their Serpentine
Gallery spat. Similarly, Bridget enjoys a brief moment of cheerfulness
on the streets of London - until a van drives by and drenches her. X is for Ex-boyfriend - Daniel Cleaver, but the movie is far from X-rated
- there is much less sex than in the first film, let alone the act
-”illegal in several countries” - that Bridget and Daniel performed
in the first film. Y is for Yellow - specifically, the hideous yellow (and orange, and
purple) jumpsuit that Bridget is compelled to wear when parachuting onto
her posterior for Sit Up Britain. Z is for Renee Zellweger - of course. The Texan Ms Z proves herself once again adept at emulating a British accent (and shape) in her second foray as the devilishly amusing Miss Jones. |