A Novice's Shining Adaptation

Bridget Jones Diary as a novel can be viewed from two mindsets. If you see it as a tale of the “New Modern Woman” because she can drink, smoke, and have sex, you’ll be angry and disappointed. However, if you can see it as an honest and entertaining portrayal of a search to find connection despite your human frailties, as the movie does, you may find a pleasant empathetic laughter erupt from within.

Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty, Jerry Maguire) plays the title character with an intelligent mixture of idiocy, cuteness, and quiet self-realization. (Not to mention she did quite an impressive job with a British accent.) She goes about her daily life conscious of how she looks to others, but not so obsessed about it as to buy new clothing to suit a taste or go on a crash diet to fit into a perfect dress. Instead, she realistically fumbles from one failed conversation to another, taking tidbits from each encounter to add to her stock of knowledge of the world around her in order to find her place within it.

She is highly attracted to her boss (Hugh Grant) who is a notorious playboy and is overjoyed when he picks her as his flavor for the month. But when he takes her for a weekend away, she assumes too quickly that it is love, only to be left for someone else when she returns in the same weekend. Her parents keep trying to hook her up with a successful childhood pal, Darcy (Colin Firth). Their interaction is so natural that you forget the obvious ties to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. They have plenty of conflicts before their much-earned union and you can’t help but smile when they finally kiss.

What made the movie more respectful was how closely it followed the book while diverting the tone from Bridget’s self-pity to her uncomfortable environment in the midst of her search. It doesn’t completely dwell on all the superficial details of the book, the amount of cigarettes smoked in a day, the ounces gained from food the day before, etc. Thankfully, where the film does use a large amount of voiceover to explain the inner workings of Bridget’s mind, this narration isn’t nearly as repetitive in terms of theme or content as the book was.

Instead, first time director Sharon Maguire chooses to insert a diary voiceover every once in a while, or a billboard on the street with the heading for that day, depending on where Bridget is in her development. This becomes an advantage and a disadvantage as some of the plot issues become unbalanced in terms of Bridget’s development. However, since Bridget is not as dependent on approval from others as she was in the novel, these bookends serve as an unreliable gauge instead of an overwhelming nuisance.

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