Storyline This film is based on the novel from Helen Fielding of the same title. The story follows a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a publicist who lives in London, is single, and dreams of being thinner and finding the right man. Bridget records in her diary all her weight fluctuations and romantic encounters during the year. The diary starts with Bridget vowing to lose some weight and find a nice man during the next twelve months.
While attending a party, Bridget’s mother attempts to set her up with Mark Darcy, an attractive lawyer. Darcy is very distant and when Bridget overhears him criticising her to another guest then that is the end of that. For now anyway. Instead, Bridget gets involved with her bad-boy boss, Daniel Cleaver. Cleaver is much more forthcoming and appears almost too good to be true. Their relationship is fun filled and touching but there is something that is not quite right. Mark Darcy is never far from the action and Bridget feels like she may have judged Mark too harshly. Which man will she choose?
Characters
Bridget Jones – played by Renee Zellweger, is a 30 something publicist who lives in London. She is obsessed with her weight, the fact that she has no man in her life and her imperfections.
Daniel Cleaver – played by Hugh Grant is Bridget’s sleazy boss. Daniel is a charming ladies man who whisks Bridget off her feet.
Mark Darcy – played by Colin Firth, is a lawyer. He is not particularly exciting, but he is attractive and ‘nice’. He makes a mistake when he first meets Bridget and potentially blows his chances.
DVD Features In addition to the film the DVD also comes with a number of special features. These include commentary from the director (Sharon Maguire), a behind the scenes featurette, some deleted scenes and two music videos (Shelby Lynne – Killin’ Kind and Gabrielle – Out Of Reach).
The approximate playing time of the film is 93 minutes.
Review I first saw this film in the cinema. It wasn’t my choice of film and to be honest I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about seeing it, but going was going to win me some brownie points. I had seen the trailers and while it looked quite funny, it struck me as a film I would rather wait and rent. When I came out of the film I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I had enjoyed it. I am not normally into “chick flicks”, but there was something about this film, which I really warmed to. More about that later. Since seeing it in the cinema I have used a birthday or something as an excuse to buy this for my Mum (and then promptly steal it on the promise that I will return it soon). Sad, I know, but it seemed more acceptable to buy it for someone else than buy it for myself. Must be trying to kid myself that I still don’t like “chick flicks” or something.
Getting back to the film. There was a lot of hype about this film before it was released and it was always going to be difficult to live up to it. Strangely this film does in many ways. Billing itself as a comedy, this film is actually funny to the extent where I laughed out loud during the film. I think the main reason why this film works is that (even as a bloke) it is easy to relate to some of the things that Bridget goes through. It is easy to see yourself involved in the situations she encounters and it is often that mental image that makes you laugh as much as the visual image on the screen.
Obviously this film is also fundamentally about romance. The thing that separates this film from a lot of other romantic comedies is that it is believable romance. It is not the cheesy, “Too-good-to-be-true” romance you get in the other films (although Daniel does offer this to an extent). The romance in the film happens more naturally with Bridget being set up by a family member at a party and getting involved in an office romance.
A romantic comedy film would not normally be top of my list of films to see but this film won me over. Not necessarily because it is funny (which did help a lot) but because I could relate what was happening in the film to what had happened to me, or someone I knew.
There are particularly good performances from Hugh Grant (I seem to be saying that a lot more than usual recently – have just reviewed About A Boy too) and Renee Zellweger in this film. Renee had to put on quite a lot of weight to fulfil this role and it is quite alarming to see at first. Hugh Grant does brilliantly as the charming bad-boy that the girls fall for. The rest of the cast are also on good form in this film.
The soundtrack for this movie is a big plus, featuring performances from Gabrielle, Geri Halliwell, Robbie Williams and Sheryl Crow among others. The album has a fantastic mix of older classics, such as “Can’t take My Eyes Off You” by Andy Williams, mixed with the likes of “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Khan and finally more modern offerings from the likes of Robbie Williams. All in all, the soundtrack is much like the film in that it has a little something for everyone.
Being based on a book, a film can often come in for some criticism from fans of the book if it is not a true representation. I must admit that I haven’t read the book so I can’t comment on accurate I think it is to the book. All I can say is that I haven’t seen or heard anything to imply that the film does the book an injustice. So, if you’re a fan of the book and haven’t seen the film, you have nothing to fear.
There is a sequel coming later this year so if you haven’t seen this film already now is the time to rent or buy it and watch it.
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Good
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