511. Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001)

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant

Director: Sharon Maguire

Running Time: 97 mins

Bridget Jones’ Diary is a British film about a woman who decides to sort her life out and find love after a bout of awkward events, by writing a diary, however, she unfortunately finds herself in even more embarrassing situations as she becomes a part of a vicious love triangle.

This film is simply annoying. It’s an hour and a half of a woman messing up in absolutely everything she does, and although it is funny to watch initially, it really becomes repetitive, boring, and extremely irritating to watch.

I’ll start with the positives. The whole farcical element to this film was not that bad. Although it does become extremely repetitive, there’s definitely a whole heap of laughs that you can get along the way if you’re wanting an extremely simple and ‘entertaining’ film.

However, unlike any really strong farces like Airplane or Anchorman, this film intertwines itself in a horrible romantic story. Therefore, its really comedic elements can’t push through to the forefront of the movie, because it’s blocked by this annoyingly cheesy rom-com doing a parody of Pride And Prejudice.

Now, this comes back to my never-ending anger with the rom-com genre, because it seems as if the concepts of a ‘good romance’ and a ‘good comedy’ can never be put together throughout the whole film, they must rather be separate to perhaps simplify the film, but definitely make it a much less enjoyable.

Then, you’ve got the unbelievably annoying performances in this film. On the part of Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, who play the upper-class gentlemen in every movie they’re in, it went to a complete extreme. As the whole film is told from the perspective of Bridget, they become this object of some ridiculous female fantasy, which really rules out half of this film’s audience from connecting with or enjoying the story.

Renée Zellweger was also not as strong as I thought she could have been in the part of Bridget Jones. In the books, Bridget is meant to be this normal, likeable and fun character, but in the film, all you see is an incompetent and irritating person, making this film almost like watching a 90 minute episode of Miranda.

Overall, this gets a 5.5, because although there are quite a few jokes to keep you entertained, it’s too annoying and generic a rom-com film to really enjoy.