Bridget Jones's Diary (film series )
Bridget Jones's Diary (film)
| Bridget Jones's Diary | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Sharon Maguire |
| Produced by | |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on | Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Patrick Doyle |
| Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
| Edited by | Martin Walsh |
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Release date
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Running time
| 97 minutes[1] |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $281.9 million |
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding. It is based on Fielding's 1996 novel of the same name, which is a reinterpretation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. The adaptation stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget, Hugh Grant as the caddish Daniel Cleaver, and Colin Firth as Bridget's "true love", Mark Darcy. Production began in August 2000 and ended in November 2000, and took place largely on location in London and the Home Counties. The film premiered on 4 April 2001 in the United Kingdom and was released to theatres on 13 April 2001 simultaneously in the United Kingdom and in the United States.
Bridget Jones's Diary received positive reviews and was a commercial success, grossing over $280 million worldwide. Zellweger was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film. A sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, was released in 2004, and another sequel, Bridget Jones's Baby, was released in 2016.
Contents
Plot[edit]
Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is 32, single, engagingly imperfect, and worried about her weight. She works at a publishing company in London where her main focus is fantasizing about her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). At her parents’ New Year party, she re-encounters Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), a childhood acquaintance and the barrister son of her parents' friends. Mark finds Bridget foolish and vulgar and Bridget thinks Mark arrogant and rude, and is disgusted by his novelty Christmas jumper. 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 decides to turn her life around. She begins keeping a diary to chronicle her attempts to stop smoking, 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 bumps into Mark and his glamorous but haughty colleague Natasha (Embeth Davidtz). Bridget leaves with Daniel and they have dinner, despite Daniel’s notorious reputation as a womaniser. Daniel tells Bridget that he and Mark were formerly friends but says Mark slept with Daniel's fiancée, for which they now hate each other.
Bridget is invited to a family party, originally a Tarts & Vicars costume party which is tied 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 to endure the party alone. When she returns to London & drops in on Daniel, she discovers his American colleague, Lara en flagrante (Lisa Barbuscia), in his flat. Bridget cuts ties with him and immediately searches for a new career. She lands a new job in television, and when Daniel pleads with her to stay, she declares that she would "rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse."
Bridget attends a friend’s long-standing dinner party, where she is the only single person. Once again she crosses paths with Mark and Natasha. Mark privately confesses to Bridget that, despite her faults, he likes her "just as you are". Some time later, as a well known barrister, he allows Bridget an exclusive TV interview in a landmark legal case which boosts her career and allows her to begin to see him in a different light.
Bridget begins to develop feelings for Mark, and when she misguidedly and somewhat disastrously, attempts to cook her own birthday dinner party, he comes to her rescue. A drunken Daniel arrives after a happy dinner celebration with Bridget's friends and Mark, and temporarily monopolizes Bridget's attention. Mark leaves, but returns to challenge Daniel and the two fight in the street, eventually smashing through a window of a Greek restaurant. They eventually call a draw only to have Daniel mutter 'wanker' at Mark as he turns away and which only Mark can hear; Mark knocks Daniel down; shocked, Bridget chides Mark and he leaves, but after a self-serving appeal from Daniel, she rejects him as well.
Bridget's mother, Pamela (Gemma Jones) has left Bridget's father, Colin (Jim Broadbent) and begun an affair with perma-tanned shopping channel presenter Julian. When the affair ends, she returns to the Jones's family home with an unintentional revelation: Mark and Daniel's falling-out resulted from Daniel (then Mark's best friend at Cambridge University) sleeping 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, according to Mark's father. Bridget interrupts the toast with an emotionally moving speech which peters out as she realizes the hopelessness of her position; her words clearly have an effect on Mark, but he still flies 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 flies to her bedroom to change into sexier underwear. Mark peeks at her diary, finds her older unflattering opinions of him, and leaves. Bridget, realising what he has read and that she might lose him again, runs outside after him in the snow in her tiger skin-print underwear and a skimpy jumper, but is unable to find him. Disheartened, she is about to return home when Mark appears with a new diary for her "to make a fresh start." They kiss in the snow-covered street, and Bridget remarks that "nice boys don't kiss like that," to which Mark retorts "Oh, yes, they fucking do."
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