Bridget Jones's Diary

_**Edgy, cute and amusing romcom with Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth**_ A cute female in London (Renée Zellweger) is concerned about spinsterhood & other womanly issues and so starts an honest diary that narrates her misadventures catching the eye of her suave boss at a publishing company (Hugh Grant), her quirky friends and her relationship with a boring man she hates but somehow finds quietly attractive (Colin Firth). “Bridget Jones’s Diary” (2001) is an English romcom that tries to be edgy, cute and amusing simultaneously. While it goes overboard with the cussing (less is always more) and the accents are too thick to grasp at times, the flick eventually won me over because it tries so hard and everything builds to a comical melee. It helps that Renée is adorable in a roundish way and is tastefully shown in alluring apparel, including a playboy bunny outfit. The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot London, Surrey, Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire, England. GRADE: B

I was watching a documentary on the late Dame Maggie Smith the other day that was narrated by the amiable Celia Imrie (herself still awaiting that particular gong) and she brings that affability to this rather dated but enjoyable comedy drama too. It's all centred around the loveless "Bridget" (Renée Zellweger) who hasn't had sex for a while and has the hots for her floppy-haired boss "Daniel" (Hugh Grant). After a few rather embarrassing encounters, they finally do hook up but then she discovers he's a bit of a rake and takes a new job in television working for sleazebag tele-journalist "Finch" (Neil Pearson). Thanks to an incident with a fireman's pole, that doesn't exactly go to plan either, but it does offer her the opportunity to get it together with posh barrister "Mark" (Colin Firth). Now she's known him for a while but took an instant dislike to him at a curry party, so what's changed? Has she discovered a new penchant for striped suits and wigs? I remember reading the book at the time and feeling a certain degree of sympathy with old "Bridj". It was just at the start of the now all-encompassing validation culture when we'd dial 1471 on our land-lines when we get home only to find nobody had called (again) and where office instant messaging was rendering scuttlebutt obsolete as gossip and flirtation became the order of many a professional day. It's that culture of feeling needed, liked and wanted that Helen Fielding encapsulated so well with this character. Hapless, yes, but decent and given a chance - loving too. Zellweger delivers charmingly and enthusiastically, as does in a more roguish form Hugh Grant. As to Firth, I'm never quite sure how much acting he ever actually does anyway, but here his contribution works well too. It does struggle almost a quarter of a century later to resonate - especially the fisticuffs in the restaurant scene, but it still has enough wit and pith in the cleverly crafted and observational script to raise a chortle and be grateful for a series of daft scenarios that poke fun at the whole business of courtship amongst the young and the old. Also, of course, Celia gets to look shocked and amazed as only she can, too.