Hey folks, Harry here with Capone's look at BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY, for which Miramax sent out Panties to critics... unused even!!! What's the use in that? Well here's the review...
Hey, Harry. Capone here with my take on the above-average BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY...
I’ve never read Helen Fielding’s extremely popular novel about the single, weight-obsessed, neurotic 32/33-year-old Ms. Jones, but I think it’s safe to say that every woman I know has. About the only thing I knew about Bridget was that many Brits were very upset when the filmmakers of BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY decided to cast an American in the title role. There may have been more appropriate actresses to play this role, but Renee Zellweger is absolutely charming as Bridget and her accent is pretty steady as well.
Zellweger doesn’t play Bridget as cute; she’s actually a hard drinker, trash talker and all-around social misfit. Men don’t find her particularly desirable, and even though this shouldn’t bother her, it does…immensely. The current object of her fantasies is her boss (always a good choice), played with reckless abandon by Hugh Grant, who does a great job of casting aside his costume-drama, good-guy image by being even more crass and vulgar than Bridget. He’s also screamingly funny and walks away with every scene he’s in. Colin Firth is lawyer Mark Darcy, who has known and mostly despised Bridget since they were children, but not surprisingly grows fond of her during the year of her life that is the timeframe of this movie.
The flaws in BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY are many, but not enough for me to level it. Some of the staples in romantic comedies are firmly in place: the publically embarrassing declarations of love, the main character running through rain/snow to catch up with a fleeing lover; the wacky and sometimes unbelievable cast of supporting characters, including Bridget’s utterly weird mother and her boyfriend ( I could have done without the sideplot involving these two) and Bridget’s gay best friend. I’ve said it before (mostly recently in my review for SWEET NOVEMBER) and I’ll say it again: you can’t have a movie about a single woman without her having a gay best friend and/or neighbor. And while the situations in BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY threaten to sink the film, it’s the stellar performances that keep things above water.
This is about the least glamorous role Zellweger has ever played, and I don’t think she’s ever been better, not even in NURSE BETTY (it’s a close call). Grant is just plain awesome. And Colin Firth begins as a two-dimensional uptight character, but his is the role that grows on you until ultimately we root for his success in wooing Bridget. The film is smart, funny, and biting in its honest and sometimes painful look at a woman who wants to be loved so badly that she sometimes walks head-first into heartbreak; and I liked it.
A little plug--If any of you would like to read my collected reviews (most of which have never appeared on the AICN site), feel free to visit BuffaloSpeedway.Net and click on Steve@theMovies.
