Great for Jane Austen fans!

Rating: 10/10 (9 March 2002)

Any Jane Austen fans out there who adored the A&E mini series of the great book "Pride and Prejudice" will adore Bridget Jones' Diary. Although Renee Zellweger's accent leaves something to be desired in places, she does a decent job of portraying a Brit. But, then, what can you expect? Honestly. Colin Firth (Mark Darcy) is, as usual, stunning in this movie. He does a phenomenal job of taking Mr. Darcy out of the Jane Austen movie and snapping him forward almost two hundred years and making it realistic. Granted, a lot of this is credit to the author of the book (and the screenwriters), but he really does a smashing job and it does help that he was in that original great production of "Pride and Prejudice". Again, for any Jane Austen fans, you will greatly appreciate the wealth of random "Jane Austen movie" characters from other adaptations of her books: Gemma Jones, James Faulkner, Jim Broadbent, Embedth Davidtz, Hugh Grant (of course), and Colin Firth (of course)! It's a great plug for the origination of this storyline. And it really is a great modern adaptation of Jane Austen. Not quite as inventive as "Clueless", but great nonetheless. Props to Helen Fielding for her great novel, and as well to the screenwriters. This is a movie I would recommend to almost anyone. Although, I have heard the criticism that the female character is whiny and unintelligent and on a completely lower eschelon than Mark Darcy (from a man, of course), I would definitely say this is a movie for the woman who has always wanted that one unattainable man--as well as a movie for those who believe in true love and that it truly does conquer all...even drunken stupidity, clumsiness, and outright moronic behavior. This movie proves that attraction and connection honestly are the two most important things when it comes to how we choose a life-partner...and that they're not exactly something we can control...