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Bridget a blooming beauty

The plot
A 32-year-old London woman, desperately searching for a partner, faces the continual dilemma of trying to choose between two men.

Using portions of Helen Fielding's hugely popular book, three fascinating characters have been created and are moulded into perfection by three hugely talented performers. The book, a diary of a year in the life of a love-seeking, self-deprecating, 32-year-old free-living London book-publishing representative, has been honed to a brisk 92 minutes.

Although played often broadly for fun, each of the three characters, and especially Renee Zellweger as Bridget, suggest an emotional frailty, lack of knowledge and desperation in shaping a meaningful relationship with the opposite sex. That said, Fielding and her two co-writers and debut feature director Sharon Maguire have turned the book into a comedy landing somewhere between Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

The serious side of Bridget's troubled and desperate inner self is almost brushed aside but Zellweger's understanding of the character fleshes her out, in more ways than one (she gained 9kg for the role). The American actor suggests an inner sweetness and vulnerability.

With her most acceptable rendition of a British accent, it carries her through the at-times disjointed and uneven script. Bridget's obsessions are her overweight, drinking, smoking, career (sort of) but definitely finding Mr Right, in the contemporary liberated male-female atmosphere which has both sexes in confusion about their places in the order of things. Juxtaposed as contrast, which doesn't work although it's amusing, is the confusion of Bridget's parents (Emma Jones and Jim Broadbent) about their wobbly relationship. At a dreaded Christmas turkey-curry buffet, Bridget is hounded with the usual questions of her romantic life and fails her mother's attempt to match her to Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

His cold, rude and short manner eventually leads her to the bed of her weak-charactered boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), at whom Bridget has been targeting herself for weeks.

There are many and sudden jumps in the narrative, including a hilarious miscue by Bridget, turning up as a Playboy bunny at a Tarts and Vicars party, and a violent physical clash between Darcy and Daniel. But Zellweger's qualities, despite director Maguire's uneven steering, smooth such blotches aided by the splendid work of Firth, the binding mortar for Zellweger's bricks. With Grant, working harder than usual to create his devious weaky, they create fun and compassion out of sexual confusion.

Movie Review Courtesy of The Advertiser - July 28, 2001.