EARLY REVIEW: Bridget Jones' Diary 2

By Wind(up)bird on 2004-06-21 11:26:12

If no one else is going to write to you about the test screening of BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON this past Wednesday in Sherman Oaks, then I guess the duty falls to me.

"Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason" (directed by Beeban Kidron, written by Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis, Adam Brooks, and Andrew Davies)was to be released in January '05 but has recently been moved up to November.

Anyway, here's the setup. The movie picks up not long after "Diary" left off, with Bridget (indie queen Renee Zellweger of "Empire Records" and "Love and a ..45") now in a happy relationship with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth, sure to be teaching at Hogwarts any day now). Clearly, these two are going to have to be somehow separated if the movie plans on being interesting, so right away we are shown elements of friction in their couplehood.

Bridget is bubbly, doting, and informal, whereas Mark acts as though he just stepped out of "Howard's End." Underneath the stuffy exterior is genuine love and affection for Bridget, of course, but Mark is reluctant to show this side in public and Bridget never really understands why. Their wildly different backgrounds and philosophies also clash, most notably in a scene where they argue over how to raise a theoretical child. After a series of misadventures in which Bridget embarrasses Mark in front of his colleagues, she leaves him rather impulsively, saying things apparently hurtful enough to convince Mark not to call her again.

Now Bridget is back where she was in the first movie (sad, single, and bored), so it's time for the reappearance of Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, again much funnier when he's evil). Daniel is now a TV personality with a travelogue show, and the network wants Bridget to be his companion on a trip to Bangkok. Will Bridget go with him? Will she fall for his devilish charms yet again? Will she reach Fort Knox before Goldfinger sets off his atomic bomb and irradiates the entire American gold reserve?

The movie annoyingly leaves the third question unanswered, but rest assured that the plot makes some interesting and unexpected turns before reaching the inevitable romantic ending where everything is finally okay again.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie: it's got plenty of great laughs, the acting is excellent all around (especially Hugh Grant and Colin Firth), and the romantic stuff is done fairly well for the most part. However, the filmmakers are definitely going for more broad comedy and less introspection this time around: on the whole, the movie feels a little slight. Still, anyone who sees this should have a good time (regardless of whether or not they've seen the first film), and these days that's more than most comedies can offer.

--Necros

You are currently Not Logged in.
Click here to login or sign up

Subject:  

xComment: