Bridget Jones's Diary
Cast
Ren�e Zellweger .... Bridget Jones
Gemma Jones .... Bridget's Mum (Pam Jones)
Celia Imrie .... Mrs. Una Alconbury
James Faulkner .... Uncle Geoffrey Alconbury
Jim Broadbent .... Bridget's Dad (Colin Jones)
Directed by
Sharon Maguire
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie
Rater #2
6/10. If there's anything I hate more than overrated movies, it's overhyped
movies that don't even begin to live up to their reputation. Bridget
Jones's Diary is one of the latter. With an original premise (which
is of course taken from a book), a rising star, and charm out the
wazoo, how could you go wrong? It's all in the marketing. A clever
comedy has to have two things. A consistent clever quality to it and
comedy. When lacking in either of these two categories, the company
(usually Miramax) just overhypes it (as they're great at doing) so
it'll be like the next Gone with the Wind or something and make sure
that everyone knows that the lead actress packed on a couple extra
pounds. And, unfortunately, that's what this movie is.
The title character (Ren�e Zellweger) is a slightly overweight,
slight neurotic thirtysomething who has a menial job and wants to
make something out of her life. So she starts a diary and becomes
romantically involved with her boss. Without the diary, the movie
would just be another British chick flick. The diary adds some
characteristic to the movie, but, as most movies do, anything
interesting they could do with the material is defenestrated for
general romantic comed clich�s and stereotyped characters.
Why am I being so harsh on it, you may ask? Well, I had been hearing
the hype for two years, since the movie first came out. "Oh, Ren�e is
so good, she gained 25 pounds!" "The movie is hilarious!" Oftentimes
I can just put away the hype and go in with an open mind. But I did
not see this before hearing about it; if I had, I'm sure I would have
enjoyed it more. For example, I saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding before
it was huge and grossed over $200 million at the box office. I
enjoyed it a lot, but if I watched it for the first time now, I'm
sure I'd be thinking exactly what I am about this movie here. I was
led to believe that this movie was strikingly original, nothing else
had been done before that was even remotely close to it. As I have
mentioned earlier, the only original part of it was the fact that the
diary was getting us closer to Bridget's life. But after the first
twenty minutes or so, when they knew they had us in, they took it out
and went to clich� land.
There were some funny moments to it, though. Nothing was down-and-out
hilarious, but many points were pretty humorous, although I wouldn't
be able to name them now. It's not one of those movies that sticks
with you, it's just one of those that you can use to pass the time
and that can be used by production companies for unnecessary sequels.
Ren�e (who starred in here before she became America's it-girl) was
pretty good and mastered a British accent masterfully, and proves
that she's worthy of a future in romantic comedy. Hugh Grant, as
Bridget's boss, is his usual self, and Colin Firth, as Bridget's
other love interest, is alright, but that added a few plot holes,
such as: if Bridget could never get a guy all of her life, how come
suddenly she gets two at the same time, not to mention they look like
Hugh Grant and Colin Firth? I guess I'm overreacting, but when I see
something that's not what it's cracked up to me, I get upset, which
is how Bridget Jones's Diary made me feel.
Rated R for language and some strong sexuality.
Running time: 97 minutes
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