| BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY |
 2001
- France / UK / USA
Director: Sharon Maguire - Reviewed by Linda
The team of filmmakers that brought us the delightful Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill once again work their romantic comedy magic with the much-anticipated Bridget Jones's Diary. Well, almost. Though it pales in comparison to the wit and the bite of Helen Fielding's original best-selling novel on which it is based, the film version earns many well-deserved laughs. Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is an unmarried 30-something woman who works as a PR girl (in her office environment, "girl" is the right term) at a publishing firm, has a crush on her caddish boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, who needs a haircut soon, or else he runs the danger of turning into Sigourney Weaver), has a circle of supportive "singleton" friends, and constantly obsesses about her vices (smoking, drinking, weight gain/loss), which she vows in her diary to control for her New Year's resolution. At a family holiday party, her mum tries to set her up with a grim and humorless lawyer, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), whom throughout the following year tends to show up often enough to insult her, while simultaneously tantalizing her. Turns out that Mark and Daniel (with whom Bridget starts an office fling) had a past friendship that has soured to a bitter rivalry. What is a single girl like Bridget to do when she has to choose? Though the story is entirely British, the controversial casting of Yank Renée Zellweger as Bridget doesn't hurt the film a bit. She holds her own with the otherwise entirely British cast, not only keeping her accent consistent, but completely becoming the klutzy-yet-endearing Bridget. This is despite the fact that she is too darn movie-star-cute to be the plain-Jane 30-something Bridget of the novel. But these producers know how to cast their films, that's for sure. As in Four Weddings and Notting Hill, even the most minor characters make a memorable impression. But what works in the book (a diary spanning one year), seems to ramble on film. The filmmakers try to tighten up the story a bit, making it into a typical love triangle, which betrays what made the book so popular. Bridget Jones on paper is, for the most part, a single woman, lamenting the pressures of society and family that make her life miserable (and hilarious). Her single friends (who barely register on film as a sort of supportive chorus), are the cornerstone of her everyday life. Instead we get the movie Bridget Jones, a single girl who is barely ever single. If she is not in one relationship, she is moving into another. She has no time to be bitter and self-depreciating! However, Bridget Jones's Diary is a cute film, I won't argue with that. Though it never really rises above being a typical romantic comedy, the great cast makes Bridget Jones an enjoyable rainy-day diversion. DVD NOTESThe DVD of Bridget Jones's Diary offers some tasty treats for the fans of the film. Among the extras are a humorous audio commentary by director Sharon Maguire (who exclaims, "Ding-DONG!" when Colin Firth first turns to face the camera in the opening scene); a mini behind-the-scenes documentary, featuring interviews with all major cast members, and offering a peek into writer Helen Fielding's original inspirations (including the fabulous British mini-series Pride and Predjudice starring Colin Firth... aah, the parallels are obvious!); some of the original newspaper columns by Fielding, when she first introduced the character of Bridget Jones to London readers; plus some hilarious deleted scenes (my favorite of Hugh Grant's Daniel watching sports on TV, and offering a foul-mouthed running commentary). The only throwaway extras are the usual gratuitous music videos and ads for the studio's other films—but otherwise fans of Bridget (both the cinema and book heroine) will get a kick out of this DVD. |
|
Home
| Currently Playing | For
Rent | Video Obsession ©2000 Moviepie e-mail us |
[