Renee may be great but...

Rating: Null/10 (27 April 2001)

Bridget Jones is an oddball, 30-something British woman who is desperate for a man in her life in the beginning and she manages to bag one by the end of the picture. Aside from that, I didn't see any character change whatsoever. That would require some insight that she gains in the course of the story and this romance is much too conventional for that.
Don't get me wrong--Renee Zellweger is great playing Bridget with all of her goofy charm but beneath it all, this is some warmed-over Jane Austen piece crossed with much of "Four Weddings and a Funeral." The main reason she falls for this rude, blank of a guy Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) is because he says something nice to her at a party. She's so desperate for affection--any affection--she mistakes this for some kind of romance. This desperation is also why she has an affair with her lecherous boss (Hugh Grant), which provides some funny interplay, but ultimately makes her seem none-too-bright.
That's okay if you want to build a movie on a woman who makes those kind of wrong choices (like "Muriel's Wedding", for example) but, hopefully, she eventually wakes up and realizes she can be a complete person without necessarily having a man. Unfortunately, this movie is too gutless to even go there. It blindly accepts that premise, doesn't question it whatsoever, and passes it all off as some light and frothy romance about a "modern" woman. Bridget Jones was too good for either of these jerks!
As well, my wife and I were offended by the obvious and predictable songs on the soundtrack. Hey, but what do we know--"Bridget Jones's Diary" is the top picture in North America this week!