Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
Review by Cosette
Film:
DVD:

Directed by Sharon Maguire
Written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies & Helen Fielding, based on the novel by Fielding
Starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, James Callis

Features:

• Feature Commentary with director Sharon Maguire
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
• Shelby Lynne “Killin’ Kind Music Video
• Gabrielle “Out of Reach” Music Video
• Original Bridget Jones’s Diary Columns
• Deleted scenes

Anamorphic: No.

My Advice: Rent It.

Bridget Jones (Zellweger) is the champion of the insecure, unattached thirty-somethings of the world. Feeling insecure after her mother tries to set her up with a reindeer sweater-clad gentleman named Mark Darcy (Firth), who seems as unhappy with her as the sweater he’s being forced to wear, she starts a diary for the new year. Recording everything from her flirtatious e-mails with her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Grant) to a catalog of her weight, cigarettes, and alcohol units consumed in a day, Bridget’s diary outlines the trials and tribulations of her life. As the year progresses, she goes on a relationship roller-coaster ride with Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver, as well as dealing with parents, friends, career, and all of the other little things that we humans tend to obsess over. This is the kind of film to watch with a group of girlfriends and a bottle of wine.

The commentary with the director, Sharon Maguire, was pretty interesting, especially the details about how dedicated Zellweger was to the role of Bridget. She not only gained weight and lived in London before shooting, but also spoke with a British accent on and offscreen during the whole shoot and did most of her own stunts. However, maybe because this was Maguire’s first film, she seemed to run out of things to say at times and repeated some points again and again. Also, she kept touching on the ties between the Bridget Jones plot and that of Pride and Prejudice, which I thought were incredibly loosely based and not really worth all the attention she gave them.

Although the film touched on the fact that it was based on diary entries through a voiceover and occasional handwriting on the screen, it was nice to see the original columns that the novel was based on. Having only read excerpts from the novel (and not really liking them), it was useful to come back to some source text again after having seen the movie. I always love looking at deleted scenes, and some of these were neat. Apparently, the British version had a different scene during the final credits than the U.S. version, and thanks to the extra features, you get to see both. The featurette was typical--interesting but a bit fluffy, and mostly consisting of blurbs from the actors about the film.

What I couldn’t stand on the extra features, however, were the music videos. I’m not a big music video fan to begin with, but show me something beautifully put together, and I won’t even care if I like the song or not. These were boring and not worth watching unless you love looking at women lip-synching and standing around gesturing. The only other thing that was a bit annoying was that every time you bring up the DVD menu, you have to sit through the little music-and-animation introduction, which got a bit old after a while. And once you make your selection, there’s another little music-and-animation bit waiting for you on the other side.

Overall, I enjoyed the DVD. It was cute, but don’t expect any deep meaning or serious undertones—just have fun with it. This is the kind of film to watch with a group of girlfriends and a bottle of wine. Unless you loved the book and adored the movie, though, it’s a rental.

Weight: Ha. I don’t think so.
Cigarettes: 0 (Don’t smoke)
Alcohol Units consumed during film: only 1