Suddenly jealousy, uncertainty and temptation - in the form of Bridget’s former boss and womanizing heart-throb Daniel Cleaver (HUGH GRANT) - threaten to upend Bridget’s dream in a comic maze of bad advice, silly mix-ups and total disasters that could only happen to her. She can’t help but wonder: what exactly is it that comes after the happily ever after?Īnd just as she’s starting to figure it all out, enter the competition: Darcy’s drop-dead, legs-up-to-there, never-says-the-wrong-thing new colleague. Having finally found her man, Bridget is faced with the equally flummoxing challenge of keeping him. Or - could it? Despite Darcy’s apparent devotion, Bridget still finds herself asking questions about life, love and the proper way to put away underwear. For six glorious weeks (71 ecstatic shags), she has been the girlfriend of the exquisitely flawless human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (COLIN FIRTH) and nothing could be better. Kate O’Flynn certainly grabs the attention as Bridget’s new boss, a hilarious glossy-lipped Goth/Goebbels cross, only impressed by Bridget when she books Jack as a guest and proceeds to interrogate him, live on TV, about his sex life.Įven if the machinations of the plot are highly unlikely and predictable, like the best British comedy, there are moments that make you cringe as well as laugh out loud.Īlong with that, there’s a familiarity about Bridget – and her inclination to show herself up, instinctively played by Zellweger – that heightens those pivotal moments when she could just tell the truth and chooses not to.At long last Bridget Jones (RENEE ZELLWEGER ) - 30-something, self-doubting, self-analyzing, career-minded, calorie-counting London singleton - has found romantic bliss. Apart from Bridget’s obvious dilemma, they draw on her insecurities about balancing motherhood with a career and ageing in an industry that prizes youth – and YouTube – above experience.
Thompson also co-wrote the script with Fielding and Dan Mazer (Sacha Baron Cohen’s frequent collaborator since Ali G) and together they trump the Edge of Reason with a sassier, more satisfying mix of dry wit and knockabout comedy. Not much later, a run-in with Darcy and a lot more wine leaves her twisted in the sheets once again and torn over what to do when she finds out she’s “up the duff”.Įmma Thompson tickles the ribs as Bridget’s doctor, who wearily plays along when the expectant mother brings Darcy and Qwant to alternate appointments, too cowardly to tell one about the other. She urges Bridget to cut loose and get “dirty” at a muddy music festival and after a bit of good old-fashioned slapstick Bridget is soon falling into bed with Patrick Dempsey’s suave American self-help guru Jack Qwant.
Still, she is in danger of losing that, too, when a team of young executive hipsters are drafted in to take the news viral.īehind the scenes Zellweger has some great X-rated banter with Sarah Solemani, a standout as a newsreader so outrageously saucy – cleverly timing her quips between headline soundbites – she’d make Fiona Bruce blush. Here, it’s Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver who is pushed out of the picture, but it’s the loss of Darcy that impels Bridget to put her heart into her work.