An American Pride & Prejudice

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2001)

Having held the two books by Helen Fielding about Bridget close to my heart, I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about seeing this movie. I was excited about the casting of Colin Firth as Mark Darcy for innumerable reasons, not least of which was the question of the scene in the second Bridget book, when she interviews Colin Firth. Will they have him play himself and Mark Darcy? I wondered. But I guess I'll have to wait for the (much anticipated and hoped for) sequel for the answer to that question. As the credits rolled, I immediately noticed that Andrew Davies name appeared as one of Fielding co-conspirators on the script. Knowing that he wrote the adaptation of the BBC Pride & Prejudice mini-series in which Firth played Austen's Mr. Darcy, I thought that I might see something a little different from the Bridget Jones Diary I know and love so well. And right from the beginning, it appears that the intention is to cleave the books together much more than in the original incarnation. Mark Darcy is much sweeter in the book, and Bridget is much less independent. Mum gets her tv job for her, and overall she is much more reliant on her friends and family to guide her than she is in the movie. They've boiled down the story to the Bridget and her two romances, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. To try to include everything would have required a four and a half hour mini-series along the same lines as P&P. I think they've accomplished what they've set out to do. They've made a happy little romantic picture based on a limited Bridget. She's been Americanized so even though Renee does a great British accent and scarfs down Branston Pickle (ugh!)this movie really is most palatable to an American audience who might not take to Bridget's hard-drinking and ultimately British ways.
Oh and Hugh Grant was good too.