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Bridget Jones's Diary Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 59 Reviews)

Hilarious All-Around Comedy!
Unfairly or not, "Bridget Jones' Diary" received a lot of attention because Renee Zellweger (title character) announced that she would gain (gasp!) twenty to thirty pounds to portray England's most beloved weight-challenged singleton. (It's hard to say it's unfair when the movie's producers kept hyping this part of the movie.)

"BJD" actually deserves plenty of praise on its basic merits -- excellent acting, witty screenplay, and great camerawork. For those who doubt how important camerawork can be to the making of a great comedy, watch how many of the laughs in this film come from the reaction shots rather than the jokes themselves. "BJD" has great writing, but there is some visual artistry in this movie that elevates it to more than a collection of funny jokes.

For example, in an early scene, Bridget confronts Mark Darcy, a seemingly grim, definitely handsome attorney Bridget's mom hamfistedly tries to set up with Bridget. While Bridget hammers on about abandoning drinking and smoking for New Year's (while clutching a cocktail and cigarette like they are life preservers), Darcy's stoic-yet-fuming reactions are priceless.

The plot is pure chick-flick. Bridget is a thirty-something singleton looking for love in the big city. Infected with bad taste in men, she pursues her boss (and office cad), played with gleeful self awareness by Hugh Grant -- check out the glint in his eyes when we first see him, a close-up with Aretha Franklin blaring on the soundtrack. Soon in an ill-advised romance with her boss, Bridget too late recognizes the signs that her boss is not a nice guy.

While enduring the excruciatingly funny torture of her mom's affair with a walking white elephant of a man (the host of the shopping network), Bridget decides to be her own woman. Breaking out on her own, despite some unfortunate slips of the tongue during job interviews, she finds herself marching to her own tune and eventually occupying a dream space -- with Colin Firth and Hugh Grant fighting over her (rather wimpishly, I might add) outside and through a crowded restaurant.

More than a touching romance, more than a journey of personal discovery, and yet so very small and perfect, "BJD" is one of those great feel-good flicks that should be a chick flick, and yet is very much more.

The DVD's extras are also wonderful, including a delightful set of "interviews" with Bridget's former boss in a bar with his succession of inadequate girlfriends. A good DVD for a great film!

Corny but cute
What really makes this movie stand out from a venerable list of other working girl fantasies is the familiar but one-of-a-kind personality of the irrepressible Bridget Jones. Created by novelist Helen Fielding, who also wrote the script, and brought to life by the talented and zany Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones is a 32-year-old pleasingly plump London working girl, a "...verbally incontinent spinster who...dresses like her mother" (to quote Colin Firth's character, Mark Darcy). She is also clumsy, the kind of girl who might spill sauce on her blouse, a little overweight, smokes, drinks too much and sometimes says what she thinks without consulting her brain. She is also very good at improvising on the spot, a talent that charms not only the two leading men, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, who vie for her affection, but also the five o'clock news audience who like her bum and knickers just fine.

Director Sharon Maguire, in her first outing, combines Brit witticisms, slapstick pratfalls, raunchy, sharp and realistic dialogue, and a blatant but inoffensive sentimentality into a romantic comedy that surely has Nora Ephron and Julia Roberts paying close attention. She keeps us guessing about who will get the girl (and who really deserves the girl) with the usual misdirections and misunderstandings characteristic of the genre. There's a little dead time about half way in, and the uncertainty about whether Bridget wants Hugh Grant or Colin Firth is milked a bit overmuch, otherwise this is nicely paced entertainment sure to chase away a blue afternoon.

Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are both very good, and Gemma Jones as Bridget's mother is a charming, dotty sight to see. Bridget's friends are funny as a kind of foil to the tired glamor of Yank TV's "Friends." And there's a darling "home movie" sequence during the closing credits purporting to recall Bridget at four and Mark Darcy at eight, that retrospectively and adorably frames the movie.

Should a CHICK FLICK ALERT be declared here? No doubt, but thanks to a warm, bubbly, funny and decidedly unprudish and unaffected (and I must say, somewhat daring) performance by Zellweger, we'll ignore it because we "like her just the way she is."

Delicious Zellweger, Delectable Grant, and Hysterical Moment
What a wonderful surprise this movie was to me. I resisted it I admit, thinking I wouldn't relate to the plump heroine coping with loveless sex, dueling suitors and haughty English folk. Yet, not only does the movie sparkle in unexpected, laugh-riot moments, Renee Zellweger proves yet again what a stunning actress she's become. In the title role, she's silly and coy, at once vapid and brilliant, a heroine for our generation. Hugh Grant is slimy-sleazy as her boss, a real departure from his "Four Weddings and a Funeral" Jimmy STewart-ish character. And, Colin Firth excels as an unlikable suitor who in the end hooks Bridget with intelligence, heroism and a deep warmth that is rarely allowed to shine (ultimately it's Bridget who brings him out of his shell, while exchanging her own for a newer model!)

Ever since "Jerry MaGuire" made her a star, Zellweger was dazzled in on screen roles like "Nurse Betty" and "One True Thing." This is an actress who is able to fully expose her character - warts and all. Where other actresses might shy away from brash, bold characters, Zellweger embraces them, and in the process, the audience falls in love. She has the sort of face that tells stories with small, seemingly unimportant facial expressions. A raised eyebrow here, a pursed lip there, she's able to convey layers of emotional context and depth that very few of her contemporaries can ever hope to achieve. Her spellbinding work opposite Meryl Streep in "One True Thing" is proof positive this star is here to stay - and deserves attention as quite possibly the best actress of today;s generation. Very few actresses could ever hope to shine opposite the legendary Streep, but Zellweger does that and more. In that film, and this one, she delivers a fully realized character, infusing Bridget with wit, charm, charisma, and more than anything - REALNESS. Ultimately, that's the best thing about this movie - the multiple levels Zellweger manages to pull off will allow even men to see parts of themselves through Bridget's eyes. Warm, lighthearted, but filled with detail and myriad emotions, "Bridget Jones' Diary" is a winner! Let's hope Zellweger finally cops an Oscar nomination (which she's deserved for other roles in "McGuire", "One True Thing" and "Betty"). At least her fellow actors know a brilliant performer when they see one - as she's been nominated for a Best Actress SAG Award (over Nicole Kidman who was thought of as a shoo in for "Moulin Rouge.")

In a nutshell, this is a fun, entertaining movie, with great music, endearing moments of comedy, and another SHINING performance by Zellweger!

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