Entertaining, funny, a bit predictable

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2001)

I saw BJD last night with my wife, who has been asking about this film for weeks now. I kept putting it off, thinking it to be another clunky, formulaic romance film. I wasn't exactly incorrect, but the film is rather inventive in how it handles some conventional situations.
Renee Zellweger did a fine job as Bridget Jones, although it's difficult to see why men would find her physically unattractive, even with the modest weight gain Zellweger had for the movie. I thought she looked terrific. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth (one of my favorite underused actors) swap their normal roles around for this film, and both are outstanding. Grant is the sophisticated, ethically challenged Lothario, Daniel Cleaves (nary a stutter!) while Firth's character seems almost unable to break outside of himself at all. You can feel Mark Darcy's tension, his wanting to express himself and his despair at not being able to do so. I'd say Firth's performance is easily the best in the film.
Unfortunately, but not too importantly, the crucial plot twists in the story are pretty obvious to anyone with half a brain, especially the one concerning Cleaves and Darcy. In the meantime, there's a lot of edgy humor in watching Jones bounce from disaster to disaster, trying to exceed her own abilities and in a few instances succeeding. Some people have commented on her lack of moderation in drink, tobacco, and sex and how that made her unsympathetic. That seems to me to be a somewhat sexist point of view, as many films feature male characters with the same exact issues, and these manage to garner sympathetic reviews.
One last note: Previous reviews have mentioned "Someone Like You" in comparison to BJD. My thoughts were on "Circle of Friends", which dealt with an overweight central female character trying to break free of her own expectations and those of the people around her. While I really enjoyed BJD, and CoF doesn't have the same edgy humor, I think CoF does a much better job of handling the central conflict of both films and treats the characters better. (Colin Firth is also in CoF, although he is in his traditional jerk character.) When Bridget Jones' Diary comes out on DVD, my wife will be clamoring for a copy, and then we'll put both on the same night and have a film duel!