Bridget Jones's Diary: The Edge Of Reason
by Victoria Alexander

Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) is not a hunk, but he is a catch. A human rights lawyer with great pedigree and a nice enough uptight fellow, he is not sexually interesting – to me. And neither is he fascinating to EDGE’S director Beeban Kidron.

It’s a mere six weeks since our overweight heroine Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) won the heart of sour Darcy. He seems obvious to her weight, clumsiness, and social ineptitude. Yet nothing Darcy says or does calms her self-doubts. She is a volcano of insecurity. Why Darcy allows her to fumble around in social settings she cannot adjust to is a mystery. It’s actually cruel. Bridget does try, but without an expert hand to guide her, she is hopeless.

Bridget and Darcy do have a lot of sex that is affirming for all ladies under 5 feet 5 inches tall and over the requisite 110 lbs. Fat girls in their 30’s can have sex! While Bridget is well aware of her awkward limitations, she is still self-loathing. She is her own enemy.

Bridget won the guy of her dreams. Where can the story go now? The fat girl bested the chic, socially acceptable women surrounding her man. The only thing to do is have Bridget mess up her relationship with Darcy and fall into the sway of another man. You see, the problem here is Bridget does not stop whining. It takes four writers - Andrew Davis, Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis, and Adam Brooks - to turn Helen Fielding’s follow-up novel into a screenplay. In the process we lose sympathy for Bridget.

Who turns up to tempt our sweet, self-tortured Bridget? Calculating, womanizing predator Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant)! He’s still on the prowl for Bridget and she falls for his pursuit. It is flattering that he is still enchanted with her. He is so good-looking in a rakish way. Or is he really interested in cuckolding Darcy?

(Just a stray thought that entered my mind.)

Bridget, now a TV journalist given the most embarrassing assignments, is teamed up with Cleaver. They go to Thailand for a story! Bridget brings her girlfriend along as a chaperon. Quicker than you can say, ‘remember flat-chested Kate Beckinsale and Claire Danes in BROKEDOWN PALACE’?, Bridget is arrested at the airport for smuggling cocaine. Cleaver sees it go down but skips off uninterested in helping her! When Bridget finds out how horribly the girls “inside” were treated by their boyfriends, she realizes that Darcy wasn’t such a creep after all. Yes, he did yell at her once, but he didn’t force her out on the streets whoring herself for their dinner.

Much has been written about Zellweger’s second weight gain to reprise her role as Bridget. Well, could a skinny girl have played Bridget with any honesty? Accept the character, take the money, and play for role properly. Zellweger is undeniably charming as Bridget but EDGE’S four writers had a problem banging out a decent story. It is a dull, unfunny script with a weird stint in a Bangkok prison for a lead character in a romantic comedy. Getting set up for smuggling in Thailand is not funny material, but if it makes Bridget realize that Darcy does really love her, then I guess it works out – but just not for me.

BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures, StudioCanal & Miramax Films present a Working Title production

Credits:
Director: Beeban Kidron
Writers: Andrew Davis, Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis, Adam Brooks
Based on the novel by: Helen Fielding
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jonathan Cavendish
Executive producers: Debra Haywood, Liza Chasin
Director of photography: Adrian Biddle
Production designer: Gemma Jackson
Music: Harry Gregson-Williams
Costumes: Jany Temime
Editor: Greg Hayden

Cast:
Bridget Jones: Renee Zellweger
Daniel: Hugh Grant
Mark: Colin Firth
Dad: Jim Broadbent
Mum: Gemma Jones
Rebecca: Jacinda Barrett
Shazzer: Sally Phillips
Jude: Shirley Henderson

MPAA rating R
Running time -- 107 minutes

by Victoria Alexander - FilmsInReview.com