Men? Where? (Bridget Jones's Diary (DVD))

Member Name: star500

Product:	Bridget Jones's Diary (DVD)
Date:	26/04/01 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny, not too soppy, does the book justice

Disadvantages: Sorry guys - this one is for the girls although you might enjoy it

Dear Diary

Weight: 1?5lbs (approx 50lbs overweight)
Alcohol consumption: 6-ish (Friday), ?? (Saturday)
Marital status: single (still)

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Had a really bad day yesterday. My boss thinks I’m stupid, the car’s wing mirror was stolen and I had to trek all the way to the local sorting office to pay 69p for a letter that wasn’t even mine. To top it all off, my latest hair dye experiment makes me look like a ghost with multicoloured string on it’s head and I managed to lose my left contact lens in a bowl of vegetable soup - and it wasn’t even Friday the 13th!

In an attempt to cheer myself up, I decided to go to the cinema and check out the new releases. Bridget Jones’s Diary had just opened so I rounded up a few of my friends (including one who had a car with a wing mirror) and decided to have a girls night out.

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The film, as the name suggests, centres around Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) who is an English, thirty something single female who thinks she is overweight and smokes and drinks too much. She works for a publishing company, lives by herself and leads a pretty average life. Her mother, like many typical mothers, likes to play matchmaker and introduces her to potential partner Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) who is an old friend of the family. However, Bridget has already fallen for her boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) but the course of true love never runs smoothly and she finds herself in some of the most hilarious situations.

I have to admit that I was a bit unsure about seeing this film because it featured Hugh Grant who is not one of my favourite actors. However, I was quite impressed to find that his usual style of stuttering, nervous acting was replaced by a more confident one and not once did he hide behind his floppy fringe.

I was also impressed with Renée Zellweger’s English accent as she was very convincing and maint
ained it well throughout the film without faltering. My only (tiny) gripe was that it was quite a refined accent, thus making Bridget seem to be a bit more on the posh side than was indicated in Helen Fielding’s novel. Nonetheless, Zellweger did a great job playing the thirty something singleton and really brought the character to life. Similarly, Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mark Darcy was also very good although I felt that it took quite a while to warm to his character.

Before seeing this, I had previously read Bridget Jones’s Diary although it was a while ago. From what I can remember, the film has followed Fielding’s plot very well even though there were a few details and incidents missing. However, this was to be expected or else we would have ended up with a four hour film which would not have impressed the audience. So if you have read the book before, you will not be disappointed, although I probably wouldn’t recommend re-reading or rushing out to buy it a week before seeing the film as you may end up being over-critical.

As with the book, the film is mainly aimed at women and this is primarily due to the fact that many women will understand, to some degree, the ups and downs of Bridget’s life. However, I suspect that a few men will enjoy the film as it has some hilarious scenes and definitely has more comedy than romance in it.

Just a quick mention about the soundtrack which, although not my cup of tea, was a great accompaniment to the movie. It features artists such as Gabrielle and Geri Halliwell whose cover of the Weather Girl’s classic "It’s Raining Men" was used to great effect during the fight scene - easily one of the best parts of the film.

I was torn between a four or a five star rating (where are half stars when you need them) but I decided to give it five for two reasons:

(1) If you don’t manage to see it at the cinema, you will no
t miss anything by seeing the video version (as there aren’t any special effects which can only be appreciated on the big screen).

(2) It is lighthearted, cheered me up and would be great to watch either alone, or with friends, whilst eating a tub of Haagen Dazs and a big packet of Maltesers.

Definitely one for the girls!!

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So diary, that was yesterday - pretty bad, huh? (except for the film) Today was a bit better though as I typed this entry up as a film review on the internet site dooyoo where I spend far too much of my time.

People have even been reading it as well which really cheered me up despite feeling sick after eating far too many Maltersers at the cinema last night. Wonder if the dooyooers would be interested in some other diary entries such as the one from last month when my toaster blew up or the one where I fell when getting out of the taxi last Saturday night.

Hmm, maybe not!

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