By: debbie lynn elias
She’s back! The slightly plump, plucky, perpetually perky and often put-upon Bridget that we all came to know and love in 2001’s “Bridget Jones’s Dairy” is back in this next installment and with all the same foibles and fiascos – only moreso. She still loves her vodka. She still loves her ciggies. She still loves to swear. She still loves making a fool out of herself on camera at work. And you know what? We all still love her – just as she is – er, or was.
When we last saw Bridget, not only had gotten a bit more comfortable in her own skin, but she was getting quite a bit comfy skin-to-skin with that dashing barrister, Mark Darcy. Despite her mother’s Christmas curry and Mark’s mother’s Christmas reindeer jumper, not to mention Bridget’s little fling with former boss, the smarmy yet oh-so-sexy Daniel Cleaver, Bridget seems to have found true bliss with the barrister. Or so we think.
It’s been a mere few weeks since we last saw Bridget in her underwear standing on a snowy London street in the arms of her beloved (so, it’s really been 3 years – it’s Hollywood!). The relationship is going swimmingly and to Bridget’s delight – complete with a lot of shagging. She’s already hoping for a marriage proposal from Mark before the next Christmas curry dinner. But as all of us girls know, the path to true love is never one without bumps in the road, be they from Christmas curry or cuddly co-workers – and of all people, Bridget should know her bumps can be on the extra large side, thanks in no small part to her own insecurities and doubts.
Thanks to a few misunderstandings, some less than flimsy excuses and some rather affectionate flirtations from a beautiful colleague, it doesn’t take long for Bridget to suspect Mark is cheating on her. And of course, rather than listen to objective reason, Bridget pushes the envelope and the relationship right over the edge. But, as luck would have it, Bridget won’t have to wallow in loneliness and self-pity too long as she soon finds herself back in the arms of Daniel. Thanks to some well timed media projects that bring them both to Thailand, the once ill-fated relationship blossoms anew. Only problem is, Bridget can’t seem to forget Mark and starts second guessing her own reasons for doubting him, i.e., screwing up the best thing she ever had.
All three principals – Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant – together with a host of supporting faces – return to the roles that made this film so endearing. Sadly, the chemistries that flowed so freely and energetically back in 2001 have a little less spark in 2004, and never moreso than between Colin Firth and Renee Zellweger, which leave a rather unpalatable after taste. Due in large part to the haphazard, unenlightening, cookie cutter scripting, the characters have been made more buffoonish and “dumbed down”, losing the very appeal that each actor and character originally brought to the screen. Although each still gives independently excellent performances, due to the writers’ character changes (and no for the better), each actor has less to work with and appears to be expected to now be the antithesis of what they were in the original film. Even more disappointing are the minimal cameoistic roles given to Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent as Bridget’s parents. What! a waste of talent!!
As for the writers, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis, Adam Brooks, and novelist Helen Fielding herself, one can only believe that they must have been enjoying a few too many sips of Bridget’s vodka while penning this project. Rather than take Bridget’s life and newfound confidence that ended the first film and take it in new directions with growth and diversity, the team instead turns the characters into nothing more than caricatures, revisiting the same events of Christmas past with stagnation and blandness. There is no personal growth, no professional growth, no film growth. We’ve got the obligatory Christmas dinner at the Jones house, a wimpish little fight between Daniel and Mark and the indecision of Bridget in choosing Mark or Daniel, but all are without detail or depth, leaving the audience to try and figure out the history or significance of the events. And what of that beautiful new leather diary Mark bought Bridget at the end of the first film? Did she lose it during! the three week gap between the end of the first film and start of this one? One of the keys to the success of Bridget Jones is the self-analysis and honesty of feelings when pen hits paper, which adds dimension to the character as she grins and smiles in person while gnashing her teeth on paper. The absence of that element adversely affects the entire storyline making this film more of a mockery rather than a love letter.
Director Beeban Kidron does no better by failing to even attempt to put a fresh spin on this substandardly rehashed plot giving us a strained, even tired feeling. The genuine warmth of the first film is almost completely gone which results in a lack of both sympathy and empathy for our heroine.
Despite its shortcomings, however, there are a few moments of freshness in the film (and I do mean few) and thanks solely to the talents of Zellweger do we see even a glimmer of any of the offbeat charms that endeared us to Bridget in the first place. And it’s because of those glimpses and glimmers that we can still relate to and love Bridget – just the way she was.
Bridget Jones: Renee Zellweger
Mark Darcy: Colin Firth
Daniel Cleaver: Hugh Grant
Directed by Beeban Kidron. Written by Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis, Adam Brooks, and Helen Fielding based on a novel by Helen Fielding. Rated R. (108 min)
