225. Bridget Jones's Diary

Song - The Closest Thing To Crazy (Katie Melua)

Movie: Bridget Jones's Diary (Sharon Maguire, 2001)

I had seen this before, but only remembered the ending and the scene where Mark (Colin Firth) tells Bridget (Renee Zellweger) that he likes her 'just the way she is." For good reason, as it's just about the only time the film feels genuinely romantic, and lets it characters express their feelings towards each other in a way that makes clear that they have thought about, and observed, each other. It's the one time the film is willing to accept that love and attraction are not just abstract concepts, but stem from real, recognisable human behaviour. The moment comes just after the perpetually single Bridget has fled a dinner party filled with married couples asking her obnoxious questions and giving her condescending advice. Each couple get its own brief introduction, with the actors seemingly given the instruction to present themselves as smugly as possible. The film takes on Bridget's perspective in looking at these couples with contempt, while at the same time sharing their view of her. I found it quite offputting and unpleasant.

The film goes to great lengths to humiliate Bridget as much as possible and a large part of it consists of situations that are contrived to showcase her incompetencies and inadequacies. Multiple scenes exist only to show that she lacks the skills and abilities to do her job, either as a publicist or as a television presenter, and have no punchline beyond that. A scene that shows that she doesn't know how to cook only exists so that Mark can help her and her friends can laugh at her. Zellweger gained weight to play Bridget and to appear as somewhat unattractive, yet the film makes explicitly clear that "her rack" is the main reason men are attracted to her. As mentioned earlier, the film doesn't have a particularly appealing view of love, seeing relationships mostly as necessary because of the social respect and acceptance they bring, barely ever trying to highlight (emotional or sexual) attraction, and having even less interest in conveying joy and pleasure in dating, or in just being around people in general.  

It does have a bit of a spark in the scenes between Hugh Grant and Zellweger, but that's mostly because the two actors are at the peak of their powers here, and find chemistry where there is none. The calculated, almost purely transactional view of love seen in their relationship also comes back in the scenes between Bridget's mum and dad (Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent), and in the scenes between Mark and Stephanie (Embeth Davidtz) though in that case at least the lack of attraction in their preordained relationship is presented as undesirable. Ultimately though, all these issues would be, at least, mitigated with a more appealing, less punishing view of Bridget. Aside from it being dull, it makes Bridget not really belong to any recognisable subculture/demographic, with the exception of being a single thirtysomething, She is a young professional in the creative sector who has basically nothing in common with any of her peers. It gives the impression that she is devised as a strawman against which well-off singles can comfortably compare their own lives.