Bridget Jones's Diary [14]
Once glance at the title and I thought, “This sounds like a porn movie.” Nevertheless, the buzz about town and Academy award nomination for Renee Zellweger (playing Miss Bridget Jones) brought this DVD into my house.
Mind you, I like British comedy and not just Monty Python either. I like romantic comedy too. This movie was slow and dry at times. And it went from feel-good comedy to depressing and hedonistic traits played for laughs. For upper-middle class twits, the characters sure seem to use the "F" word frequently. I count 17 times just in the memorable quotes on the IMDB page. Also, this movie *spoils* the ending of Fatal Attraction (1987), if you have not seen it. The only real funny moment comes when she has a dream in which she dies fat, drunk and lonely and is eaten by large German Shepherd (Alsatian) dogs.
Bridget Jones seems to be just as described by Mark Darcy: “verbally incontinent spinster who drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney and dresses like her mother.”
Hugh Grant (playing Daniel Cleaver, Bridget’s boss, lover, ex-boss, and ex-lover), has re-invented himself as a playboy scuzzball, no doubt because of his notorious prostitute encounter with Divine Brown in 1995. Bridget resolves that she will not fantasize about Daniel who is a member of all these groups: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists, chauvinists, megalomaniacs, or emotional f*ckwits.
Mark Darcy (Colin Firth’s character) is a would-be lover of Bridget too. However, this man is as dry as dust and speaks through an immovable jaw. What does she see in him? What does he see in her? Who sees anything going on here?
This is a chick flick all the way. Although, not every Item in Kathy Shaskan’s Chick Flick vs Macho movie list is covered (No childbirth. No Death, unless you count *spoiler* Glenn Close’s on screen death in Fatal Attraction.)
Veteran actor James Broadbent is wasted here as Bridget's dad.
Keep this away from the kids. And just exactly what did Daniel do to Bridget that is illegal in many countries, that made her tell Daniel she loved him? We can only guess since he turns her over and does it again as the camera pulls away....great....
I see now that Renee won the academy award for her substantial weight gain (30 lb). I have to learn to factor this into my best actor/actress handicapping. {BB}
Added: December 27th 2004 Reviewer: BB 29 Point Scale Score: [14]
Related Link (IMDB): IMDB Hits: 2375 Language: english
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