Starring a fantastic Renée Zellweger as Bridget, Hugh Grant as her boss and Colin Firth as Mark Darcy. Salman Rushdie and Jeffrey Archer appears as cameos in the film. As often with British films, the supporting cast is amazing and the whole production is tight and warm. Book author Helen Fielding was involved with writing the screenplay, and I think that the film follows the book closely, without being too long or pretentious.
This is a film that never ever could have been made in the US, since it shamelessly displays and makes fun of several of the most taboo topics in American society; sexual relations at work and body issues - Renée runs around shamelessly showing most parts of her body in a non-flattering way whilst being not at all shaped like Gwyneth Paltrow or Julia Roberts.
One interesting thing is the choice of Colin Firth as Darcy; not only does he play Mr. Darcy in the film Pride and Prejudice, upon which the Bridget story is loosely based. The Mr Darcy character that Colin played is the model for Mr Darcy in the Bridget books... The "real" Colin Firth also appears in the book sequel, Bridget Jones The Edge Of Reason so how will they solve this for the surely upcoming film sequel ? Will someone else play Colin Firth in the film, since he likely will be playing Mr. Darcy ?
Oh, and Renée is from Texas. She worked hard on the British accent.
I haven't read the book, but I must say the movie was fantastic! My opinion might have been slightly enhanced by the fact that I saw the late show, 11:35 pm, but once when I thought a movie was the funniest thing ever while drunk on heather cream, I still found it hilarious when sober.
While the character of Bridget embodies most of what made me stop reading Cathy Guisewite's comics (wondering if other women were really like that), she is still very amusing to watch. And the rare chance to see Hugh Grant act like a jerk is worth the cost of admission.
Despite the fact that I predicted the outcome and certain details from the characters' past long before they were revealed, I still fully enjoyed watching the process of getting there.
Bridget is comparatively younger than most American women would be in her state of mind: as one magazine stated "forty is the new thirty", when women start either panicking that they'll never marry or try to get serious with their lives. But she is not young, doesn't see herself as thin, and actually worries that she's drinking and smoking to excess. (Here again, Britain has different standards: three to four drinks a day are considered "normal", as opposed to America's one.) Her entire attitude towards food seems to be "Ack! I ate something!" In the days of Swinging London, this wouldn't be a problem, despite the fact that the English diet was more fattening then: she'd simply down some "blues" that would kill her appetite. While most "dolly birds" in Swinging London stories would have no trouble bedding down with at least half a dozen men, Bridget has trouble dealing with two, only one of whom she actually has sex with. Unlike most American media depicting singles, she's actually shown alone, rather than constantly in the company of friends, snoopy landlords, or kooky neighbors, who constantly barge in to ask the protagonist what they're thinking.
The other interesting fact is that British life, comparatively speaking, doesn't seem too much different than American living. Britain, after all, used to be the place where they had no central heating (in one fashion magazine from the Seventies, a small, modernistically-styled grate in the bathroom was touted as the ultimate luxury), only three TV stations, two of which were comparable to PBS, offices were Victorian catacombs (with comparable office equipment) and restaurants all seemed convinced that servers with pencil moustaches and a vaguely greasy air were a sign of swank. (Their take on Italian food, at least as late as the early Eighties, seemed particularly surreal.) Bridget's world is one of Macintoshes, her mom is a model on Home Shopping Network and lives in a home that looks like a clone of my parents', and if there is any fireplace in her flat, I can't see it.
For all that, I didn't like the movie either.
The movie of the book of the newspaper column. The one that spawned the phrases 'Singleton' and 'Smug Married'
I want to say I am a guy. I am married with children, and yes, I guess some people would call me smug. I loved this movie, even though Hollywood calls it a Chick flick, and aimed it at single 20-something women. Loved it? Well, I laughed until I nearly wet my pants. I also cringed and squirmed, but I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.
It's not politically correct. It's not serious and it's definitely a no-no to treat the heroine as any kind of serious sociological phenomenon, though (almost) all the single 30-something women I know find something to identify with in the columns, the book, and especially the movie.
The plot
Ever read Pride and Prejudice?
Helen Fielding, English 40-ish author of the original columns published in the UK newspaper, The Independent, and then compiled into a book, said she stole the plot of the Jane Austen novel for BJD. There's our heroine (Bridget) There is a hunk, who turns out to be a cad and a bounder. There is a stuffy rich guy, to whom the heroine takes an instant dislike (and vice versa). The story revolves around the air-headed, but immensely-likeable heroine and how she falls for the bounder, is betrayed and finally discovers that the stuffy guy is the love of her life, only to (almost) lose him.
Bridget is a single 30-something woman employed in publishing. She has a lot of close friends who are also either single 30-something women, or single, 30-something gay men. They drink, party and look for partners, but never quite seem to find them. Bridget starts to keep a diary, reporting her weight, alcohol consumption, number of cigarettes and details of her (lack of) love life. She dreads visiting the smug marrieds and her mother and other relatives, who always seem to ask how her love life is going.
The story revolves around how she meets and starts dating the first guy, how she discovers that he is a scoundrel, and eventually finds happiness with the second. As predictable as any Austen novel, but much, much funnier.
The cast
The role of Mark Darcy has an interesting history, in that while Fielding was writing the original newspaper columns, the BBC was showing Pride and Prejudice as a TV serialisation. Colin Firth was playing the role of Mr. Darcy in that adaptation, and Fielding wrote him into Bridget Jones. There was little choice but to use Firth in the Bridget Jones movie.Fortunately, he was very happy with the character and its gradual revelation to the audience.
The Texan actress Zellweger was an inspired choice for Jones. As part of her preparations, Zellweger had to add over 10 pounds to her normally-svelte figure.She achieved this through a diet of burgers, chips, Pizza and ice cream. It's a tough job, but someone had to do it! In addition, she had to acquire a convincing English accent. The production company found her a job in a UK publishing company (Picador, based in London), making tea, operating the photocopier, answering phones and so on. Zellweger successfully convinced her co-workers that her real name was Bridget Cavendish, and she lived in the English Home counties.
The full listing (thanks, IMDB)
Director: Sharon Maguire
Running time: 95 minutes
The soundtrack
Hmm, seems like an addendum is called for
TheLady, as always, adds some geat pointers, and hers is a far more serious critical review than mine. Besides, she noded the whole of P&P, and Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park so she, if anyone should know. Go ahead, read her write-ups. learn from them and upvote them.
I severely disliked the book, thinking it neurotic, unaffectionate and generally ill-natured. But the movie is so good I have officially placed it in my list of Great Jane Austen Spoofs, together with Clueless and the more orthodox Emma.
printable version chaos
Everything2 Help
