Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones’s Diary is one of the all time great romantic comedies. The film is based on the book of the same name by Helen Fielding along with a sequel of her second book ‘The Edge of Reason’. The superb cast includes Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant as the main characters.

The film was a huge box office hit and was equally well received by both critics and audiences. There was some controversy about the casting of an American in the title role, which was seen as a quintessentially English character. Fortunately Zellweger acquitted herself admirably even down to the reasonable English accent.

Fielding has admitted there are many plot similarities to the Jane Austin novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ so when Colin Firth agreed to play Mark Darcy this was simply the icing on the cake. Despite superb performances by all the main actors, undoubtedly Hugh Grant’s portrayal of the evil Daniel Cleaver was the show stopper. Quite clearly he is very capable of playing more than the bumbling English fop he so often seems to be cast as.

Bridget Jones is an every woman, early thirties, worried about how her life is going and her waistline and why she cannot seem to find a decent boyfriend. She becomes entangled with the office heart throb, Cleaver, but ends up having her heart broken and quits her job. She slowly comes to the realisation that her dream man is about to walk out of her life and leave for America.

Cinema release 2001

Certificate 15

Available on DVD and Blue Ray