Grade: C+

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2002)

Bridget Jones' Diary was a huge surprise, but not in the way that I hoped. The buzz was that this was a terrific movie. I was looking forward to seeing a funny, charming, illuminating, character-driven movie featuring one of the more talented actresses working today, Renee Zelllweger (One True Thing, Whole Wide World, etc). So last night I settled down in front of the home theater with my sweetie, dimmed the lights and loaded the DVD. To our great disappointment, this film failed to deliver the goods in a number of respects, but especially in terms of character and story development. Bridget is not just pitiful and hapless for a minute for comic effect -- she is hopelessly helpless throughout. She is ultimately not not only a spectator to her own life, but a mute and uncomprehending one. Because she learns nothing about herself and her world, neither do we. Bridget's lack of self-discovery is especially curious and disappointing because this is something that a 'diary' film might have been minimally expected to explore successfully. My wife' s comment was " I couldn't imagine ANYONE being THAT stupid!" The other major failing of the film is that the dramatic events of the story are just too simplistic and even more implausible as they conspire so conspicuously and predictably to deliver the requisite happy ending. Bridget may have been happy, but we were not. We hoped for something more thoughtful and revelatory. Grade: C+, due to poor writing and direction.