Bridget Jones's Diary DVD > Reviews > British splendour, spunk and stiff upper lips

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Everything
Disadvantages:	Nah

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I like it, love it, yes, I do.

Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent are good, very good indeed, but this whole thing is much, so much more than the sum of its very significant individual parts. It's the sort of astounding movie that the British film industry has excelled at for the last thirty years, recreating the magic of the Ealing comedies of the Fifties, and is quite simply one of the funniest, most adorable films of the last decade.

It's light hearted and jokey, brimming over with eccentric British splendour, spunk and stiff upper lips, like all the very, very best things. In fact, there's only one thing which is the slightest bit iffy about the whole thing and that's the phenomenal hype that surrounded it upon its release. Normally such hype is enough to curdle the milk and set expectations soaring immensely high, such that they could never, ever be met. However, in the case of the marvellous Bridget Jones's Diary it was all justified, completely and utterly justified ... because this film is quite simply immense in a very minute and bijou way.

You've all heard the bit about the big pants and the fireman's pole and the nether parts of Ms Zellweger's famous body, and doubtless this film has been seen by the vast majority of you discerning readers out there, because it was immensely popular, but sadly I missed it when it first came out and was blissfully unaware of its quirky pleasures until the last couple of days when I encountered it on Sky Movies, which is my standard method of enjoying things these days, saddo that I am.

I was pretty damn convinced that I was going to be a little disappointed as I sat waiting with my nibbles and cup of coffee, and trembled with dull anticipation as the opening credits rolled. And yet I needn't have worried at all, because this film is brilliant, completely and utterly brilliant, making a very big deal indeed out of not very much and touching us all exactly where we live.

Bridget Jones (Zellweger) is a thirty something spinster who works in a publicity firm and whose life is going nowhere, either emotionally or in career terms. She's fat and frumpy and frustrated and convinced that she's missing out on all life's best secrets. With the pretty standard loser's determination to turn over a new leaf and change all that, she enters into the spirit by pouring her deepest, darkest, most secretive thoughts into a diary, and a pretty naff looking red desk diary at that.

Of course, there's the beastly cad in the shape of her boss, Daniel, played with ineffable flair by the surprisingly gifted Hugh Grant, and the tall, dark and brooding Mark Darcy (as portrayed by the tall, dark and brooding Colin Firth). Bridget's lust for life is first sated by the deep seated lust she inspires in the philandering Daniel, but you know that it's the good guy who's going to come good in the end (sob sob, it's so moving). The language operates mainly at the level of the street, but hey this is real life, or as close as we're likely to get to it in movie land, and Bridget Jones's Diary is quite splendidly earthy and wholesome, and FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY.

The talented cast gel wonderfully together and there's some tremendous ensemble playing, with even the insufferable Grant taking his share of honours. His speech is quite liberally sprinkled with four letter words, as is that of most of the others, and it never seems quite right to be coming out of his posh vocal chords, but it ain't too bad at all here. Of course, he gets no sympathy at all for his beastliness and you just hope against hope that the Devil and Ms Jones ain't gonna get it on too eternally.

Rest assured if you've still not seen Bridget Jones's Diary as yet - it's ace, a real good time hour and a half which you will just adore. It's vital that you forget the hype and the headlines and just get on with enjoying it for itself, rather than what you've been told about it. Expect to be disappointed and you will love it, expect to love it and you may be a touch miffed, but it's quite unlikely. It's not as quintessentially and eccentrically British as Steve Coogan's The Parole Officer and can be taken as transatlantically as Mel Gibson's What Women Want, but it's a hundred times better than that one. Hey, the way things are going lately, romantic comedy may be starting to get a halfway decent name for itself...