Bridget Jones's Diary

''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire from a screenplay by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis. It is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Fielding, which was itself a loose adaptation of Jane Austen's ''Pride and Prejudice''. The film stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, a 32-year-old British single woman who writes a diary, which focuses on the things she wishes to happen in her life. However, her life changes when two men vie for her affection, portrayed by Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones appear in supporting roles.

Principal photography began in August 2000 and ended in November, and took place largely on location in London and the home counties.

''Bridget Jones's Diary'' premiered at the Empire in London on 10 March 2001 and was released on 13 April simultaneously in the United Kingdom and in the United States. It grossed $282 million worldwide against a production budget of $25 million and received generally positive reviews from critics, who highlighted Zellweger's titular performance, which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 74th Academy Awards. It has been hailed as part of the English pop culture, with Bridget Jones being cited as a British cultural icon.

The success of the film spawned a ''Bridget Jones'' film series, with three sequels being released, '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004), '' Bridget Jones's Baby'' (2016) and '' Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'' (2025).

Plot

Bridget Jones is 32, single, engagingly imperfect, and worried about her weight. She works as a publicity assistant at a publishing company in London where her main focus is fantasising about her womanising boss, Daniel Cleaver.

At her parents' New Year party, Bridget is introduced to Mark Darcy, a childhood acquaintance and handsome barrister, the son of her parents' friends. Mark calls Bridget foolish and vulgar, and she thinks he is arrogant and rude. Overhearing Mark grumble to his mother about her attempt to set him up with "a verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, and dresses like her mother", Bridget forms the New Year's resolution to turn her life around. She begins keeping a diary to chronicle her attempts to stop smoking, stop drinking, lose weight, and find her Mr Right.

Bridget and Daniel begin to flirt heavily at work, ahead of an important book launch, at which Bridget runs into Mark and his glamorous and haughty colleague Natasha. Bridget leaves with Daniel and they start dating. Daniel tells Bridget that he and Mark were formerly friends, but as Mark had sex with his fiancée, they now hate each other.

Bridget is invited to a family party, originally a "Tarts & Vicars" costume party, so she ties it into a mini-break weekend with Daniel. They spend the day before the party at a country inn where Mark and Natasha are also staying. The morning of the party, Daniel says he must return to London for work and leaves Bridget dressed as a Playboy Bunny to endure the party alone. When she returns to London and drops in on Daniel, she discovers his American colleague, Lara, naked in his flat. Bridget cuts ties with him and immediately searches for a new career. She lands a new job in television, and rejects Daniel's pleas for her to stay.

Bridget attends a friend's long-standing dinner party, where she crosses paths with Mark and Natasha. He privately confesses to Bridget that, despite her faults, he likes her "just as you are". Some time later, he allows Bridget an exclusive TV interview in a landmark legal case which boosts her career and prompts her to see him differently. Mark comes to Bridget's rescue when she attempts to cook her birthday party dinner and the two have a celebration with Bridget's friends. A drunken Daniel arrives to monopolise Bridget's attention which prompts Mark to leave before he returns and challenges Daniel to a fight in the street. When the fight ends, Bridget chides Mark and dismisses Daniel as well.

Bridget's mother, Pamela, having left Bridget's father Colin for an affair with a shopping channel presenter, returns to the Jones family home. She off-handedly reveals that Mark and Daniel's falling-out resulted from Daniel (then Mark's best friend at Cambridge University) having sex with Mark's wife which Mark walked in on, not the other way around. At the Darcys' ruby wedding anniversary party the same day, Bridget confesses her feelings for Mark, only to learn that he and Natasha have accepted jobs in New York and are on the verge of an engagement. Bridget interrupts the toast but fails to dissuade Mark from travelling to New York. Bridget's friends rally to repair her broken heart with a surprise trip to Paris, but as they are about to leave, Mark appears at Bridget's flat.

Just as they are about to kiss for the first time, Bridget rushes to her bedroom to change into sexier underwear. Mark notices her open diary, reads her earlier unflattering opinions of him, and leaves. Bridget realises what has happened and runs outside after him in the snow. Finding him outside a nearby shop, Bridget apologises for what she wrote and says "it's just a diary". Mark reveals he only left to buy her a new one, which he gives her, "to make a fresh start", and they kiss in the snow-covered street.

Cast

Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Jeffrey Archer and Honor Blackman have cameos in the film.

Andrew Davies, screenwriter of the 1995 television adaptation of ''Pride and Prejudice'', collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004 ''Bridget Jones'' films and Crispin Bonham-Carter, who played Mr. Bingley in that adaptation, appeared in a minor role. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy, as it gave him an opportunity to ridicule and liberate himself from his ''Pride and Prejudice'' character.

Production

Working Title Films acquired the film rights of the novel in 1997 before it became a best-seller.

Casting

Actresses who were considered for the role of Bridget Jones were Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett, Emily Watson, Rachel Weisz (who was considered too beautiful for the role), and Cameron Diaz. Toni Collette declined the role because she was on Broadway starring in '' The Wild Party'' at the time. Kate Winslet was also considered, but, at 24, the producers decided she was too young.

Zellweger's casting in late May 2000 concluded a two-year search. Producer Eric Fellner explained that she "brings enormous character and conviction to the part". Director Sharon Maguire said of Zellweger, "I saw in Renee a gift few people have, that she was able to straddle comedy and emotion." Zellweger worked on her accent with Barbara Berkery, who had helped Gwyneth Paltrow for ''Shakespeare in Love''. She also gained 20 pounds (9 kg) for the part. To prepare for the role, Zellweger worked at the producers' request at London book publishers Picador as a trainee in the publicity department. Before the film was released, a considerable amount of controversy surrounded the casting of the American Zellweger as what some saw as a quintessentially British heroine. However, her performance, including her south-eastern English accent, is widely considered to be of a high standard.

In July 2000, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant were cast as the male leads. The director of the film, Maguire, one of Fielding's friends, was reportedly the base for the character "Shazzer" (English slang for Sharon), as mentioned in the behind the scenes commentary on the DVD. In the film, Shazzer is played by Sally Phillips.

Filming

Principal photography began on 1 August 2000 and concluded on 5 November 2000. The crew spent six weeks shooting in and around London. Locations used included Shad Thames where Bridget and Daniel have their first date, the Royal Courts of Justice, St Pancras railway station and Tower Bridge. Scenes were filmed at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire where Bridget and Daniel ventured to for their mini-break. Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire served as the Darcys' home. Stansted Airport doubled as JFK Airport in New York City, while Syon House in Brentford featured as the venue for the anniversary party. The crew filmed for four days at Snowshill in Gloucestershire which featured as the home of Bridget Jones's family. After six weeks of shooting on location, the crew moved to Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Patrick Doyle. The soundtrack for ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' was produced by Nick Angel and Kathy Nelson and features two previously unreleased songs that became hit singles, including " Out of Reach" by Gabrielle and " It's Raining Men" by Geri Halliwell, the latter of which became Halliwell's fourth consecutive number-one hit single on the UK Singles Chart. Following the success of the first soundtrack, a second soundtrack was released, titled '' Bridget Jones's Diary 2: More Music from the Motion Picture and Other V.G. Songs''.

Reception

Box office

''Bridget Jones's Diary'' grossed $71.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $210.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $282 million, against a production budget of $25 million. The film made $10.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing third. Dropping just 5.7% in its second weekend, the film made $10.2 million and finished first the following weekend.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 164 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though there was controversy over the choice of casting, Zellweger's Bridget Jones is a sympathetic, likable, funny character, giving this romantic comedy a lot of charm." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Much acclaim was given to Zellweger's performance, with Paul Clinton of CNN writing that Zellweger "nails Jones's London accent while simultaneously delivering a performance bursting with power and brimming with heartfelt emotion". Mark Adams of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' praised Zellweger's knack for physical comedy, and ''The Washington Post''s Stephen Hunter said the film lets her "show both her frantic awkwardness and her tender decency". ''The New York Times''s Stephen Holden called the film "a delicious piece of candy whose amusing package is scrawled with bons mots distantly inspired by Jane Austen", and added "Ms. Zellweger accomplishes the small miracle of making Bridget both entirely endearing and utterly real. It is a performance so airy you barely sense the work that must have gone into it." The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, describing it as "made against all odds into a funny and charming movie that understands the charm of the original, and preserves it". ''The Guardians Peter Bradshaw commended Maguire for directing with "chutzpah and style".

Lisa Schwarzbaum of ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote, "Hugh Grant is charming too, luxuriating in naughtiness, taking a holiday from his usual floppy, velvet romantic image as Bridget's caddish boss, Daniel Cleaver." Hunter praised Firth, writing "He's the complete Darcy, and he never wavers. There's no sentimentality, no flirtation with the audience, no final moment of pandering to the niceness gods; he's a cold geek all the way through."

Some critics said that in the book's adaptation to the screen, it loses "much of Fielding's irony, nuance and cynicism". Clinton wrote, "While the writers have captured Fielding's sparkling rhythm with words, they've created a bit of havoc with the plotline." Though she gave a positive review, Schwarzbaum opined, "The mess, though, where's the mess? The hysteria, the middle of the night jitters of loneliness? The mess of Bridget's life n the bookhas been tidied, neatened into little piles of mirth and gaiety...The movie never shows us anything about Bridget that's remotely in need of psychological or physical fixing." Felicia Feaster of ''Creative Loafing'' expressed that "Bridget's 'why can't I find a husband?' lament" becomes tiresome and "caters to women's lowest expectations and suggests that even the 'modern' 'liberated' woman is a Doris Day closet-case." In contrast, Stephanie Zacharek of '' Salon.com'' said the film is an improvement on the novel.

In a 2021 retrospective piece for the ''New Statesman'', Johanna Thomas-Corr discussed the more outdated aspects of the film, but said that the central performances are what makes the movie timeless.

Accolades

''Bridget Jones's Diary'' was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Film, the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the Satellite Award for Best Film – Musical or Comedy, while Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2008, the American Film Institute included the film in its AFI's 10 Top 10 "Nominated Romantic Comedy" listing.

Renée Zellweger's performance was nominated for an Academy Award, the BAFTA Award, the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, the Empire Award, the Golden Globe Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award. Colin Firth was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and the Satellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, while Hugh Grant won the Evening Standard British Film Awards' Peter Sellers Award for Comedy and was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and the European Film Award – Jameson People's Choice Award – Best Actor.

Musical adaptation

In 2009, it was reported the film version was being adapted into a musical, set to be performed in London's West End, although no premiere date was set. British musician Lily Allen wrote the score and lyrics, and Stephen Daldry, best known for his Tony award-winning work on the West End and Broadway productions of ''Billy Elliot'', was in talks to direct, joined by his co-worker Peter Darling, who was said to serve as choreographer. Workshops for the show began with television actress and star of '' Legally Blonde'', Sheridan Smith, in the title role. To date, a full production of the musical has not been mounted.

See also

* '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'', the sequel
* ''Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'', the third novel in the series.
* '' My Lovely Sam Soon'', a Korean series with some thematic and narrative similarities

References

External links

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Bridget Jones Online Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridget Jones's Diary
Bridget Jones
2001 films
2001 directorial debut films
2001 romantic comedy films
2000s American films
2000s British films
2000s English-language films
2000s French films
American romantic comedy films
British romantic comedy films
English-language French films
English-language romantic comedy films
Films based on British novels
Films based on Pride and Prejudice
Films directed by Sharon Maguire
Films produced by Eric Fellner
Films produced by Tim Bevan
Films scored by Patrick Doyle
Films set in London
Films shot at Shepperton Studios
Films shot in Essex
Films shot in Gloucestershire
Films shot in Hertfordshire
Films shot in London
Films shot in Worcestershire
Films with screenplays by Andrew Davies
Films with screenplays by Richard Curtis
French romantic comedy films
Miramax films
StudioCanal films
Universal Pictures films
Working Title Films films