Director: Sharon Maguire
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gemma Jones
Have I Seen it Before: Yes? It’s a favorite of my wife, and we’ve been together for long enough that I would have had to have watched in its entirety, right? And yet, can I be sure?
Did I Like It: It is difficult to dislike a movie like this. Zellweger is far more convincing and charming as the quintessential British everywoman than she has any right to be. Firth is at the purest point of his Firthyness muttering his way through every interaction. It was probably desperately needed for Grant to occasionally no longer be portrayed as a lovable handsome man, when in reality he is far more believable as—to bother a term—complete and utter wanker.
But let’s get to my Big Thought for this movie. For my money, Bridget Jones’ Diary is the Rocky IV (1985) of romantic comedies.
Wait. Don’t go. Let me finish.
While both the boxing movie and the romantic comedy are certainly prone to the montage to help their stories, let me ask you a question. Were one to take the montages out of either movie and let their stories play out not with characters looking wistful or forthright on their own, but instead with scenes where the characters actually interact and speak with each other (or at all), how long would the film actually end up running?
My guess is about 45 minutes.
I’m not even sure that’s a problem, necessarily. I’m a sucker for a silent movies, and I’m sure whichever conglomerate go to press the soundtrack album for those films made a mint. I just can’t help but wonder if ultimately there just wasn’t enough movie there, thus the padding. There are worse crimes for a movie, one supposes.
I didn’t expect at the outset of this review that it would double as review for both Bridget Jones Diary and Rocky IV, but here we are. The temptation to now re-watch Rocky IV and just republish the review is almost too much to bear.