Like its heroine, flawed but likeable (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (24 December 2001)

Bridget Jones is 32, single, and to put it mildly rough around the edges. She smokes too much, drinks too much, frets about her love life more than is healthy and has a perpetual case of foot-in-mouth disease. And yet...there is a warmth about her, an undefinable something that makes her charming even when her behavior is less than commendable. She is, in spite of herself, likable. And as it goes with Bridget, so it goes with "Bridget Jones's Diary," the film adaptation of Helen Fielding's bestselling novel.
We begin at New Year's Day, with Bridget beginning her journal and promising herself that this is going to be The Year: the year when she sheds those extra pounds, chucks the cigarettes, and finds true love. Two prospects soon present themselves for the last category. Bridget has her eye on her boss Daniel (Hugh Grant), a naughtily charming bachelor who soon makes his mutual interest quite unmistakably known. Bridget's mother, meanwhile, tries to throw her in the path of divorced friend-of-the-family Mark (Colin Firth)--an apparently hopeless cause as Mark is not only rather stiff, but both he and Bridget take a mutual dislike for each other.
No points for guessing that Daniel isn't the catch he appears to be, or that Mark will have a heart of gold beating beneath his apparently stuffed shirt. But in a movie like this, the destination isn't near as important as the journey to it, and for the most part it's a fun ride.
Most of the credit for the film's success falls in the laps of its three leads. Rene Zellweiger, cast amidst great speculation, acquits herself as a very sweet and sympathetic Bridget. Her heart's in the right place, even when her priorities are not. After nearly cornering the market on stammering British nice guys, Hugh Grant does a surprisingly good turn as the rakish Daniel, mantaining his charm even after we've realized what a jerk he is. As Mark, Colin Firth plays pretty much the same role he had in "Pride and Prejudice" (the fact that both characters are surnamed Darcy is in no way coincidental) but still plays him very well, with his apparent coldness gradually giving way to the tender warmth which shines in his expressive eyes.
Although Bridget's determination to perservere despite near-constant mortification is part of her appeal, the constant scenes of her social and romantic faux pas become trying at times. The secondary plots to Fielding's novel might have added some variety, but these have been exised to give more screen time to the Bridget-Daniel-Mark love triange (and, no doubt, to the appealing personages of Messrs. Firth and Grant as well). In the end, "Bridget Jones's Diary" is your basic romantic comedy, with a colorful but peripheral supporting cast (Gemma Jones as Jim Broadbent are the highlights as Bridget's parents) and the Mr. Wrong and Mr. Right who end up being each other in disguise. But even by-the-numbers films can work if done right, and ultimately "Bridget Jones's Diary" has that extra kick which sets it apart from the pack of romantic comedies that come out every year.