Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason ** (2004, Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant) – Classic Movie Review 749

Dear diary,

As I was writing back in 2001, I’ve found total bliss with my Mr Right, a clumsy bloke called Darcy, (Colin Firth). But now, as I start this new diary in 2004, there’s trouble in paradise when, after six glorious weeks with him, I’m just consumed with jealousy over his drop-dead new colleague (Jacinda Barrett) and then I’m tempted by my smoothie old boss (Hugh Grant).

And, next, they’ve made another film of my diary, with the same American star as in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Renée Zellweger, who this time has put on too much weight and acts like a silly ass all the time, parachuting into a pig pen, falling down a ski slope and mimicking Madonna in a Bangkok jail. Still, I think you’ll find my story funny and warm to Hugh Grant’s effortless real class.

Bridget Jones.

PS: After poor reviews, box office was a bit shaky in the US, where, after costing $70 million, it took only $40 million. But in the UK it was a triumph, scoring over £35 million. However, it did not live up to the triumph of the first film, which cost $26 million and took $72 million in the US and £42 million in the UK.

PPS: Also in the cast are Gemma Jones, Celia Imrie, James Faulkner, Jim Broadbent, Jacinda Barrett, Dominic McHale, Donald Douglas, Shirley Dixon, Neil Pearson, Rosalind Halstead, Luis Soto, Tom Brooke, Shirley Henderson, Sally Phillips, James Callis, Lucy Robinson, David Verrey, Mark Tandy, Stephanie O’Rourke, Jeremy Paxman, Ian McNeice, David Auker, Patrick Baladi and Paul Nicholls as Jed.

After this, Firth said: ‘I can’t think where another sequel would go. It’s unthinkable. The only way I could possibly imagine it being interesting is if it showed us in an advanced state of decrepitude.’

PPPS: They are planning a belated third movie, Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016), starring Zellweger and Firth again.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review  749

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