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FILM CRITIQUE:
"Bridget Jones' Diary" is apparently a very successful British book that has been turned into an equally well-filmed
British movie. This is surprising given the fact that its star, Renée Zellweger, is an American. However, she pulls it off
as she does a wonderful job bringing the singularly British angst of a zaftig and hapless klutz of a lonely, unmarried 32
year old lass to the silver screen. The normally petit Zellweger even chunked up an extra 20 pounds for the role and it shows.
So the acting, especially by Zellweger, is first rate, but is that enough? Unfortunately, not for me. The movie lives
or dies on the credibility of the romance between Bridget and the guy she ends up with, and this movie has no believability
whatsoever that this relationship has any future or even that it is remotely plausible at the outset.
The storyline plays like a goulash of recent movies mixed in with classic British hits. The movie starts off as a modern
version of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" (recently brought to the screen in a marvelous BBC production starring
Colin Firth as the taciturn, proud and nobly-born Darcy secretly in love with the lively and opinionated, but lower class,
Elizabeth Bennet).
Colin Firth has reprised his role as well as Darcy's personality in "Bridget Jones' Diary" as Bridget's eventual
love interest. His name has even been carried over as Mike "Darcy". Cute, huh?.... How original.
The initial verbal snub spoken by Darcy to Bingly at the county dance and overheard by Elizabeth Bennet has been reproduced
almost verbatim here as has the opening sentence of that wonderful novel, "It is universally ackowledged...."
So the movie starts out on a rock-solid foundation as it has stolen from one of the very best-written and most insightful
novels of societal manners in Western civilization, and a book that I happen to love very much.
From there it tries to mix in current British sensibilities and a few oddball characters similar to "Four Weddings
and a Funeral". The copying goes further with Hugh Grant, as Bridget's boss, Daniel Cleaver, carried over from that
movie, only this time as a ne'er-do-well womanizing villian more closely resembling the character of Wickham in "Pride
and Prejudice".
This story has even been written with some bad blood in the recent past between Darcy and Cleaver (Grant) just as there
was between Darcy and Wickham. Only in this movie Cleaver has been reduced to a complete cad, as it turns out, as he has been
caught "en flagrante delicto" with Darcy's Japanese wife, shortly thereafter his ex-wife.
Now comedies are extraordinarily difficult to pull off as what is a laugh riot to one person will be insulting and gratuitous
to the next. British comedies are often hit-or-miss affairs as their over-the-top portrayals result in comedies with equally
overkill sensibilities where the humor, when detectable by the non-British, is often buried under the stylistic setups.
"Bridget Jones' Diary" is mildly amusing at times and creates genuine warmth at other times as Rene Zellweger
does a marvelous job in creating sympathy in her angst-ridden portrayal of a loser at love. We are, after all, on her side
and want her to win at life, but what the movie does not do is create an intelligent, believable portrait of either Bridget
Jones or a reason, any reason, for Mark Darcy to fall in love with her.
For example, Bridget Jones, the story would have us believe, is the public relations employee for a popular literature
publishing house, yet nowhere does she exhibit the intelligence that one might assume would be requisite for this job. Her
reading interests seem to dwell exclusively on gossip magazines similar to our National Enquirer over here and not to the
authors whom her employer represents and publishes.
Later on she lands a job as a television reporter based on, unbelievably enough, the fact that she slept with her former
boss and thus offers hope for the same opportunity to her new boss at this tv station. One has to make the legitimate but
sexist assumption that there must have been a plethora of more talented and more attractive women who would be equally willing
to sink to this level in order to advance their careers in this manner, so why was she hired and not them?
But, more importantly, the corollary of this comment would be to ask why did she not develop socially in either of these
jobs? Bridget Jones remains the same throughout the movie in spite of the many lists for self improvement that she enters
in her diary. Neither her career changes nor the love of Mark Darcy gives her the impetus or the encouragement to improve
herself.
One might wonder why a woman of 32 years has spent so little effort at character growth. After all, there are many overweight,
lovable klutzes out there who are happy in their relationships because these people have not let their bodies and/or negative
self-images hold them back from meeting the intellectual challenges of life which result in, please note, personality growth
and a subsequently enhanced self-esteem. Watching Bridget Jones in this movie is similar to watching a sterile Petri dish
without a growth culture in it.
And Mark Darcy proclaims that he loves her just the way she is. Yeah, right.... Just like all our wives love us just
the way we are and don't make any efforts to encourage us to adjust our male chauvinist tendancies to that of more tender
sensibilities after we are married. Any man who watched Darcy make this comment in this movie and didn't choke on the hypocrisy
of it all must have had a screw loose.
Readers of this review have to understand that Mark Darcy is a high-powered lawyer (barrister) and a partner in a London
law firm who turns down an opportunity to be posted to New York in order to pursue Bridget. Not very believable for a lawyer,
is it? While Bridget's erstwhile opponent and a fellow law partner of Mike's is an intellectual cold fish and calculating
to boot doesn't make Bridget herself all that much more attractive as the romantic alternative. One can just imagine him bringing
her to a partner's dinner.
Furthermore, Bridget is not just an overweight, unkempt, and sloppy personality in both her personal habits and professional
career, she is also a heavy smoker and spends most of her spare time drinking to excess. I don't think that falling down drunk
is as humorous as this movie would have us believe. I will grant the fact that she IS sweet and lovable in her own special
way, but what else is there to make any relationship with a member of the opposite sex something that might last longer than
a British fortnight?
Any reader of "Pride and Prejudice" knows that Elizabeth Bennet is perfect for Darcy as they compliment each
other beautifully. She is in all ways other than monetary his equal. They will learn from each other and they will support
each other throughout their married life. No one who watches "Bridget Jones' Diary" can possibly feel confident
that Darcy and Jones have any future whatsoever.
This movie does, however, have a number of sparkling lesser roles, notably those of Bridget's parents played by Jim Broadbent
as her forlorn dad and the wonderful Gemma Jones, who starred many years ago in the Masterpiece Theater production of "The
Duchess of Duke Street", as her wanderlusting mother.
So, two and a half stars for the sparkling acting and supporting roles, but zero stars for the believability of their
romance. If it is romance that you are looking for, stay home and read the original Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice".
Or rent the glorious, rapturously romantic four hour BBC production starring Colin Firth as Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth
Bennet.
Why bother with this shallow imitation when you can enjoy the real thing?
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