Almost perfect comedy and really heart warming

Rating: 8/10 (8 November 2002)

Surely, there is a Bridget Jones in all of us! At least I can certainly recognize myself in a lot of the things she says, thinks and does. This movie manages to be heart warming without getting too sugary and still it doesn't lack guts! We have love, hate, disappointment, excitement and a fist-fight. There are some scenes that are absolutely hilarious (like Zellwegers tv-debut in a fire station and the "Tarts & vicars party") and others that are touching or heartbreaking (look at Zellweger's face when she finds another woman in Hugh Grant's bathroom). Every member in the cast is perfect. Grant plays a manipulative yet very charming creep, and does it well. It's a long way from "Four weddings..." where he was the one who had a sort of Bridget Jones-character to play. You DO however understand why Bridget is attracted to him. Colin Firth is the straight-laced lawyer who develops a crush for Bridget early on (if not at first), but have great difficulties to express his feelings. A character like his isn't easy to put across and might become a bore in the wrong hands. It is a great strength of Mr Firth that he conveys a sort of boyish awkwardness and lack of confidence instead of inducing yawns. Smaller parts are equally well cast with a few stand-outs, like Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent as her parents and James Callis as her gay friend. But finally there is Zellweger and she is perfect in her part! Absolutely amazing performance. You root for her all the way because you always feel she is so HUMAN. She makes foolish mistakes and put her foot in her mouth on quite a few occasions, but who hasn't? She is sweet, funny and a fighter. And she is in every single scene in the movie(except for a few funny ones during the end-credits) and yet I didn't spot a single false note in her performance. Academy-award stuff, really! If the movie has one small fault it is that a few scenes tend to drag a bit and are not as funny as they could have been. I also think that too many of the minor characters were reduced to clichés, but i have to admit that I probably wouldn't have laughed as much if it had been otherwise. All in all, a treat!