Stars: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant

Bridget Jones (Zellweger) is an average single woman living in London. She struggles with her weight, lives an unhealthy lifestyle of drinking and smoking ridiculously large amounts and has a bad history with men.

With New Year’s Day upon her she makes some New Year’s resolutions and a diary in which to record her daily life events. She starts an affair with her cad of a boss Daniel Cleaver (Grant) and absolutely despises (and at the same time is attracted to) the somewhat subdued and ‘boring’ Mark Darcy (Firth). What follows is a complete upheaval to Bridget’s troublesome life with embarrassing and funny moments thrown in, only to find her man in the most unlikely of places.

Zellweger, Not Britains first choice for this quirky lead, excelled as Bridget Jones. As the movie is based on this character, the camera is on her most of the time. Not only had she nailed the English accent, but she was believeable, witty and perfect for the role. Wonderfully charming, she gave the bewildered looks of innocence when needed. Her movements and mannerisms are well timed and it is little wonder that most women, across the planet, could identify with this well written character.

Grant portraying the evil Daniel was perfect, he seemed almost natural in this, far more natural than his ‘nice guy’ roles, which demonstrates his acting ability. Although, there is still the muttering English man we are used to, there is a nasty streak of sarcasm which is just fantastic. It was great to see him playing a role that was so different to what he normally portrays, so much in fact that his role was probably the highlight of the film for me.

Firth was brilliant as Mark Darcy and his character was based, hence the name, on his somewhat subdued character of Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.

Especially wonderful moments from this movie are Mark and Daniel HAVING a punch up, which looked more real than the ones you normally see in movies. But it was also complete with hair pulling, which is always quite interesting to see. And of course, Daniel’s discovery of the huge knickers while entangled on the floor with Bridget, truly a classic embarrassing moment.

This was definitely not the “man bashing chick flick” that I was expecting which was a great surprise. Instead it is an extremely sharp satire on single life and an insight into how people cannot always trust their first impressions and how time makes you see things that are not always instantly apparent.

THE EXTRAS

Audio Commentary by Director Sharon Maguire, she is very astute and witty in describing various scenes in the film. She describes her relationship with the various cast members and generally has fun talking about a movie she is obviously proud of.

A 9 minute Behind-the-scenes feature - which includes cast, crew and writer interviews. As well as some making of film footage, a very clever presentation.

7 deleted scenes which include the original ending which shows other charcters in the film’s reaction to her final decision and my wife’s favourite of a young Bridget wading in the pool naked at Mark Darcy’s 8th Brithday.

“Bridget Jones’s Articles” - Actual Diary entries from The Independent Paper in London, demonstrating Bridget’s evolution.

“Killin kind” music video performed by Shelby Lynne

“Out of Reach” music video performed by Gabrielle

CONCLUSION

A wonderful movie that has excellent repeat value. Funny, heartwarming and extremely honest. A perfect translation of the book.