The movie version of the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason hits theaters today — will this be a further boost to Renée Zellweger's career or just another nail in the coffin of the romantic comedy? She's fat, she's thin, now she's fat again! Gothamist is sick of hearing about it, but it's difficult not to watch. Plus, this time around she's an Oscar winning actress, rather than an ingenue with something to prove. Will this change her performance significantly?
Last we'd left our heroine, Bridget that is, she'd run after the exiting Darcy and now they were standing in the falling snow, making out to "Someone Like You" with Bridget in but a pair of tiny knickers and sneakers. She has her man, now the premise of the sequel is that she has to figure out to keep him.
Our big rational for loving Helen Fielding's book is that the plot mirror's Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and her character Bridget is obsessed with the BBC's mini series version of the 18th Century rom com starring Colin Firth. Thus, when Mr. Firth played Mark Darcy, a character literally compared in the novel to Austen's fictional Darcy, it was a great moment of meta, self-referential fun. Then in the follow up novel, one of the most side-splitting scenes comes when journalist Bridget tries to interview actor Colin Firth and rather than discussing his most recent project, fixates on the wet shirt scene from the mini series.
If only they would put some sort of split screen one actor, two roles thing in the sequel so character Mark Darcy could finally meet actor Colin Firth, then we'd be happy. Are you still a Bridget fan? Predictions on how good the movie will be? Or are romantic comedies so over?
