Opinion

Bridget Jones's Diary

I came to this film from a slightly odd starting point, having only read the second of Helen Fielding's books, Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason, and had a couple of specific expectations based on it: that Bridget's ever-present (usually on the telephone) friends, Jude, Shazza and Tom could over-balance the film, and that the central 'diary' form of narrative would be very difficult to pull off. It might be that director Sharon Maguire had the same concerns, as she effectively minimises these elements completely and focuses on telling a fairly straightforward story of romantic misadventure.

Renee Zelwegger is convincing as Bridget, though the English accent that received so much attention during filming is a degree plummier than I'd mentally given the character (though with Fielding herself Executive Producing, I can only assume she at least thought it was right). As she gets caught up in an ill-advised relationship with her boss (Grant) while all the while pondering the attractions of a 'rude, pompous tosser', (Firth), the film follows an entertaining course, taking in dunkings in the river, comic misadventures in a bunny girl costume, and ritual humiliation on television before arriving at a point of emotional and dramatic conclusion with a suitably OTT ending in the middle of the kind of snowstorm not really seen in London since about 1930.

The film is by no means a classic, but it does entertain for pretty much the whole of its duration, and the performances are of a uniformly high standard, with Zelwegger more than able to carry the narrative, and all the supports working well together. First time director Maguire manages to succeed in transferring what is quite a difficult concept to film, and to round off the whole package, the soundtrack is excellent, with Bridget performing a brilliant karaoke version of All By Myself over the opening titles that sets the scene for a CD that should be called Now That's What I Call Chick Flick.

Overall, a seven out of ten.