This week’s review was supposed to be about Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green’s new movie. But reports on it from friends who attended last Friday’s free midnight showing of the movie were disparaging without exception. I decided then to spare myself the pain and instead bring to your attention a film much more deserving of your time.
Based upon the best-selling novel by Helen Fielding, the new movie Bridget Jones’s Diary tells the story of British singleton Bridget Jones. She smokes too much, drinks too much, weighs too much (in HER opinion), and cannot find the right kind of man. The film follows her misadventures as she resolves to change her life for the better.
Renée Zellweger plays the titular character with radiant charm. We feel Bridget’s pain when she fails as well as her joy when she triumphs due to the way Zellweger so completely slips into this role. She becomes Bridget so fully that even the accent she affects in the film seems totally natural; we honestly are willing to believe she’s been speaking that way her entire life.
Hugh Grant also ably plays Daniel, Bridget’s boss who she becomes romantically involved with. Daniel fits the very definition of a cad, embodying everything Bridget should not be looking for in a man, yet she is still drawn to him. We as an audience can understand why, thanks to the “naughty boy” aura Grant manages to emanate even from the first moment we see him, emerging from an elevator with a sly smirk on his lips.
The script of the film does both of these fine actors a good deed as well by providing them with an excellent starting point for their characters, letting them play with a full range of emotions while developing their characters. During one scene in which Bridget is helping produce a television segment about firemen, she has to slide down a pole in her miniskirt, and her bare behind ends up broadcast nationwide. We laugh at the ridiculous situation until moments later we see Bridget’s embarrassment and sympathize with how she’s feeling.
This script effortlessly maintains this delicate balance between comedy and drama throughout the film. Scenes such as the opening credits can tug at our heartstrings as we watch Bridget tearfully sing over sad music about loneliness. Yet others are outrageously funny and have us rolling in the aisles, like when two men fight in the street with all the grace of amateur clog dancers.
Perhaps the only problem with the film is its roots as a beloved novel. Diehard fans of the book might be disappointed at what was expurgated for the film, but such concerns are incidental. And although this movie might seem to be something of a “chick flick,” guys too will enjoy the movie’s comedic mixture of slapstick and wit.
Though the film is already a week old, it still managed to top the box office this past weekend, beating out Spy Kids, the reigning champ for the three weeks prior. Clearly this romantic comedy has good word of mouth about it, easily helping it win out over inane comedies like the aforementioned Freddy Got Fingered or the new Crocodile Dundee movie. Hopefully the negative word of mouth those films will receive, along with this coming weekend’s crop of duds, will help Bridget Jones’s Diary again beat out the competition; it most assuredly deserves to.
First published, abridged, in The Capaha Arrow, April 26, 2001.
