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Bridget Jones's Diary Customer Reviews (10 - 12 of 59 Reviews)
A feel good movie-
I loved the book. I loved the movie. I loved the vhs. And now, I loved the dvd.
Why? Helen Fielding captured a certain time in a single woman's life (the early 30's) at a certain era in our cultural history (post women's lib, at a time when women are supposed to want it all, yet society still demands marriage). I, and most of my single female friends, related so strongly to the trials and tribulations of our heroine. The loving 'urban' family, the smug married friends, the sleazy bosses...are all true to life for so many contemporary women.
The movie retains the charm of the book. Renee Zellwegger is a revealation as the chain smoking, food binging heroine. Yet she goes way beyond capturing the compulsions of Bridget-she also movingly portrays Bridget's more poignant sides and the lonliness many women (and men) feel in the dating jungle. Hugh Grant is his usual charming self. Yes he is nastier in this film but he still has a light and charming way about him. Colin Firth
is wonderful. He too portrays a character, who despite tremendous professional success, also seems to struggling with issues of social unease and lonliness.
Of course, some people won't like this movie. Hugh Grant, british comedy, romantic comedy-if these genres are not your thing, this movie will not change your opinion. But a treat for the rest of us..
The DVD offers a fabulous commentary from the director, Sharon Maguire, the real life "Shazzer" in the book.
See the movie, then read the book.
Samuel Pepys, Sue Townsend, and now Helen Fielding. Bridget Jones's Diary has its place amongst the works of Britain's greatest diarists. If you are like me and revelled in Helen Fielding's remarkably witty written work then you will probably be somewhat disappointed by the movie. Perhaps a more apt title to the movie should have be "Bridget Jones's Diary - Abridged". I note that Helen Fielding herself executive produced and co-write the screenplay and all I can ask is, what happened? Don't get me wrong, the movie if examined by itself is actually decent, Renee Zellweger is absolutely spot on as Bridget Jones in her search for "inner poise". I thought the casting of Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver and Colin Firth (reprising his role in Pride and Prejudice as "Darcy") was genius and quite the inside joke. In the end it wasn't the actors or the acting that let me down, it was the way the screenplay seem to completely water down the clever wit and charm of the written material. If you've seen the movie, whether you liked it or not, I urge you to read the book and be prepared to laugh out loud. I feel like the subtle farcical complexity of Bridget Jones's inner voice was given the Hollywood treatment and reduced to a rather straight forward romantic picture. The subtlety of Jane Austen replaced by Fatal Attraction (what was THAT all about?). I think the movie makes the classic mistake of almost all paper to film translation, it over simplifies and spoon feeds the audience. I think it's too late to do anything about it, but maybe if Ang Lee directs the Edge of Reason it can be saved.
Something about the title....
I purchased this DVD (and the book) for two reasons: 1. The story is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice (my favorite novel of all time), and 2. I share the first name of the heroine (though a different spelling).
It was very refreshing to see Hugh Grant as the reprobate instead of the affable good guy he usually portrays, and Colin Firth wearing that "lovely" reindeer sweater was practically worth the price of the movie alone. It was a lot of fun also to see a number of British actors and actresses that I had only seen before in period pieces in "civilian clothes". I wasn't particularly impressed with Renee Zellweger, though I'm not certain if it was her or the script for the part she was playing.
I did think that the script went a little overboard with the "goofiness" of the Bridget character. At first her mistakes were amusing.... after a while it became boring and annoying. Everyone has had moments where they want to crawl into a hole and die of embarassment, but the film portrays this character's every action as one mistake after another and after a while it simply ceases to be funny. The audience can sympathize with a character that has "bad hair days", but after a while, just plain stupid isn't funny. The viewer is left wondering what either male lead could possibly find interesting or attractive about Bridget Jones. I'm not sorry I bought the film - it just wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be.
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