Bridget
is
back
By
David
Edwards,
The
Mirror
They're
back. No, not Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Renee Zellweger. I'm talking
about Bridget Jones's massive pants which get their first on-screen airing
in three years. Cinema's most-notorious knickers are just one of the
highlights of Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, a film that's by far and
away the best British comedy of the year. Even better than the 2001
original, I guarantee you'll be blown away by its laugh-out-loud humour
and utterly entranced by Zellweger as the hapless thirtysomething.
Following on from Bridget Jones's Diary, the serial singleton has been
happily dating Mark Darcy (Firth) for six weeks - or "71 ecstatic
shags" as she puts it. With the wilderness years behind her and her
career as a hapless TV journalist going from strength to strength, she's
secretly waiting for her new beau to pop the question. But things quickly
unravel as she starts to suspect that shapely Rebecca (Jacina Barrett) is
making a play for her new bloke. To make things worse, temptation rears
its carefully-coiffured head when slimy Daniel Cleaver (Grant) arrives
back on the scene determined to rekindle his romance with Jones.
The result is a film packed tighter than a pair of size 14 pants, with
great one-liners and hilarious situations. One of the best comes when
Jones is forced to parachute from an plane for a TV report. Paralysed with
fear, she tells her producer: "I can't see anywhere soft to
land." "How about your arse?" comes the unhelpful reply.
She has about as much luck on the ski slopes too. Also hilarious is a
scene when Jones jets to Thailand for an assignment and unwittingly eats
an omelette stuffed with magic mushrooms. She ends up in the bed of
Cleaver, who utters the immortal line: "Oh God, I hope you're wearing
the giant panties."
If the jokes shine, it's the performances that truly dazzle. Grant is
perfect as a sleazy TV producer while Firth, who could never be accused of
being a great actor, is utterly convincing as the charming but snooty
Darcy. But it's Zellweger who is the real star, although until last year
it was not certain she would take the role as it meant piling on the
pounds to go from a size six to a 14. Well, thank God she did, because
nobody else could bring such a winning mixture of vulnerability and
haplessness to the role. As in the first film, Jones endlessly frets about
her relationships, sometimes drinks too much and continually worries about
her weight. In other words, we can't help but like her because she's just
like us.
My only problems with the film are the same ones that can be levelled at
most recent Working Title productions - namely a sometimes overly-quaint
view of London and that "bugger" and "shag" dialogue
that's been popping up in their scripts ever since Four Weddings And A
Funeral.
Quibbles aside, this is a terrific was to spend an hour and a half. Laugh?
I nearly snapped the elastic on my pants. |