Diary

April 19

Last night, after being virtuous for a while, I wandered over to the Riverside Theater (the most comfy theater in town) to see Bridget Jones's Diary (there's some spoilers coming). I wasn't super-enthused about it, but it was the only film that sounded good at all-- I'd like to see Blow sometime, but I was more in the mood to be uplifted than downtrodden last night.

I haven't read Fielding's novel, so I didn't know what to expect of the movie, really-- I knew it was about a single British woman and her troubles in love. If nothing else, I figured it would be two hours of watching Reneé Zellwegger be cute, and that didn't sound bad.

She was cute. I guess it was a big deal in the media that she put on weight for the role, but really, she just looked normal-- which is, I suppose, something of a rarity in Hollywood. She had the barest hint of a double-chin-- I guess that sufficed for "pudgy." Then again, this is a film (and book) steeped deeply in a particular woman's point-of-view, so maybe part of the point is that she thinks of herself as pudgy, whether she really is or not.

Hugh Grant was great fun. He's often a little too charming for my taste, but there was an underlayer of bastard-ness to this character that gave his charm an edge. Zellwegger, as I mentioned before, was adorable, and the other male lead (whose name I don't recall, and I'm too lazy to look it up on IMDB) was pretty wonderful, too. There's a big fight scene that's just fabulous-- almost the way a real fight would be. Except for the defenestration. But then, after flying through the window, the characters didn't do somersaults and start fighting again-- they lay there among the broken glass and moaned.

It's a funny movie, and of my favorite sort-- most of the humor derives from character, from who these people are. There are moments in Nurse Betty (another film where Zellwegger shines) that are almost painful for me to watch, where her character is doing such hopelessly wrong, embarrassing stuff that it makes me cringe (and in that case director Neil LaBute gleefully dwells on those painful scenes, because that's just the kind of guy he is). There are some cringe-worthy moments in Bridget, too, but the character really is endearing, and she doesn't always make an ass of herself-- sometimes she kicks ass, instead, and that makes her embarrassments into humanizing touches rather than scenes designed solely to induce discomfort in the audience.

The diary doesn't have a lot to do with the story, honestly. We know Bridget keeps it, and there are occasional funny bits of narration read from the diary, and it does serve to provide the last little reversal for the characters, but it barely even qualifies as a trope. I'd like to read the book now, actually, just to see how the author handled this story while working entirely in Bridget's voice, with her particular verbal shorthand.

The movie is terribly predictable-- one of the male characters is named Darcy, and during the film Bridget half-quotes from Pride and Prejudice when she says "It is a truth universally acknowledged...", so from those cues alone one suspects that she'll hate this guy at first, and then end up in love with him. Then again, it's a romantic comedy, so you can sort of suspect that already-- it is the plot of 98% of romantic comedies.

The predictability is okay, though (not ideal-- some twists I didn't totally see coming would have been welcome), because the point of this film is the people and their lives and their search for love. There are some lovely romantic moments, very truthfully and skillfully done. Love is one of my favorite themes; it's one of my favorite things. This movie made me feel all romantic and thrilled and delighted with the world of relationships, so I'd say it served its purpose, yes?

Then again, I'm pretty much always a sucker for a good love story.