Bridget Jones's Diary [WS]

Overview

Based on Helen Fielding's hugely popular novel, this romantic comedy follows Bridget (Renee Zellweger), a post-feminist, thirty-something British woman who has a penchant for alcoholic binges, smoking, and an inability to control her weight. While trying to keep these things in check and also deal with her job in publishing, she visits her parents for a Christmas party. They try to set her up with Mark (Colin Firth), the visiting son of one of their neighbors. Snubbed by Mark, she instead falls for her boss Daniel (Hugh Grant), a dashing lothario who begins to send her suggestive e-mails that soon lead to a dinner date proposition. Daniel reveals that he and Mark attended college together, during which time Mark had an affair with his fiancée. When Bridget finds Daniel cavorting with an American colleague, she decides to change her life with a new job as a TV presenter. At a dinner party, she bumps into Mark again, who expresses his affection for her; when Daniel claims he wants Bridget back, the two fight over who deserves her affections the most. Popular British performers Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, and Shirley Henderson appear in the supporting cast.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/15/2011
UPC:	0031398134695
Original Release:	2001
Source:	Miramax Lionsgate
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:38:00
Sales rank:	64,829

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Hugh Grant	Daniel Cleaver
Colin Firth	Mark Darcy
Jim Broadbent	Ojciec Bridget
Gemma Jones	Matka Bridget
Sally Phillips	Sharon
Shirley Henderson	Jude
James Callis	Tom
Embeth Davidtz	Natasha
Celia Imrie	Una Alconbury
Honor Blackman	Penny Husbands-Bosworth,Shirley
James Faulkner	Wujek Geoffrey
Charmian May	Pani Darcy
Paul Brooke	Pan Fitzherbert
Felicity Montagu	Perpetua
Johnny Clegg	Elderly Man,Actor
Patrick Barlow	Julian
Neil Pearson	Richard Finch
Salman Rushdie	Actor
Julian Barnes	Actor
Dominic McHale	Bernard
Lisa Barbuscia	Lara
Claire Skinner	Magda
Dolly Wells	Woney
Mark Lingwood	Cosmo
Toby Whithouse	Alastair
Donald Douglas	Pan Darcy
Renu Setna	Pan Ramdas
Emma Amos	Pauline
Sarah Stockbridge	Melinda
Sulayman Al-Bassam	Kafir Aghani
Lisa Kay	Eleanor Ross Heaney
Charlie Caine	Actor
Gareth Marks	Actor
Matthew Bates	Actor
Rebecca Charles	Actor
Joseph Alessi	Actor
Milennia Strings	The Musicians
Rhydian Jai-Persad	Actor
Paul Ross	Actor
Stewart Wright	Actor
David Cann	Actor
Millennia Strings	Actor
Patrick Doyle	Composer

Technical Credits

Andrew Davies

Richard Curtis

Helen Fielding

Sharon Maguire	Director
Andrew Davies	Screenwriter
Richard Curtis	Screenwriter
Helen Fielding	Screenwriter,Executive Producer
Tim Bevan	Producer
Peter Brayham	Stunts
Jonathan Cavendish	Producer
Frazer K. Churchill	Special Effects
Eric Fellner	Producer
Michelle Guish	Casting
David Harris	Special Effects
Abbi Collins	Stunts
Ronald Bailey	Sound Effects
Tony Bell	Sound Effects
Ricky Butt	Sound Effects
John Casali	Sound Effects
David Crozier	Sound Effects
Joss Gower	Stunts

Scene Index

Side #1 --
1. Opening Credits: "My Thirty-Second Year Of Being Single" [3:51]
2. Keeping Resolutions [3:29]
3. "Is Skirt Off Sick?" [3:29]
4. "Oratorical Fireworks" [:47]
5. "Bridget Jones, Wanton Sex Goddess" [:47]
6. "A Full-Blown, Mini-Break Holiday Weekend" [3:40]
7. Tarts And Vicars? [6:19]
8. "Is There Someone Here?" [5:15]
9. "I'm Every Woman" [7:57]
10. Bonfires And Smug Married Couples [5:28]
11. Darcy's Exclusive Interview [3:26]
12. "To Bridget, Just As She Is" [6:00]
13. "Should I Bring My Dueling Pistols, Or My Sword?" [4:27]
14. "I Just Don't Work Without You" [6:16]
15. "You're A Nice Man And... I Like You" [3:16]
16. "Diaries Are Just Full Of Crap" [5:35]
17. End Credits [5:58]

Menu

Side #1 --
   Play Movie
   Set Up
      Audio Options
         English
         French
      Captions And Subtitles
         Spanish
         English For The Hearing Impaired
         Captions / Subtitles: None
   Special Features
      Feature Commentary With Director Sharon Maguire
         View The Film With Audio Commentary With Director Sharon Maguire: On
         View The Film With Audio Commentary With Director Sharon Maguire: Off
      The Youngd And The Mateless (An Expert's Guide To Being Single)
      The Bridget Phenomenon
      Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
      Portrait Of The Makeup Artist
      Domestic And International TV Spots
         Play All
         "Decisions"
         "Critics' Toast"
         "Grace"
         "Be Bridget"
      Deleted Scenes
         Menu Group #1 with 8 chapter(s) covering 00:11:44
            Play All
            Have You Met Miss Jones...?
            Bridget Jones- Marketing Genius
            Dad
            Phone Message
            How To Attract A Man
            The Perfect Relationship...?
            And Finally...
      Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason Theatrical Trailer
      Bridget Jone's Diary Columns
      A Guide To Bridget Britishisms
      Bridget Jone's Diary Reviews
         Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
         Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
         Nicholas K. Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
         Susan Wlosacayna, USA Today
         Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle
   Scene Selection
   Sneak Peeks
      Play All
      Miramax 25th Anniversary
      Shall We Dance?
      Shall We Dance?
      Finding Neverland

Editorial Reviews

Many objected to Texan Renée Zellweger's casting, but she more than does justice to the title British singleton in the film adaptation of Helen Fielding's cheeky Pride and Prejudice update Bridget Jones's Diary. Though co-scripters Fielding, Richard Curtis, and Andrew Davies do away with most of the novel's accounting of Bridget's calories, cigarettes, and alcohol, and sadly limit her friends' presence, they retain some of the book's wittiest Bridget-isms through voice-overs as well as dialogue. Director Sharon Maguire (Fielding's inspiration for "Shazzer") occasionally dwells too much on Bridget's humiliations on her way to romance, but Zellweger's performance overcomes the flaws. Famously sporting 20 extra pounds and a pitch-perfect suburban-London accent, Zellweger charmingly nails Bridget's comic self-loathing and sneakily confident sass, underlining why hunky Colin Firth and sexy Hugh Grant convincingly come to hilariously foppish blows over her. Having a humorous go at their own images, Firth's upstanding Mark Darcy resurrects his Pride and Prejudice Mr. Darcy smolder, while Grant's Daniel Cleaver is precisely not his usual stammering nice guy. Bridget may not be a feminist heroine for the 21st century, but Bridget Jones's Diary at least manages to be an increasingly rare bird: a clever romantic comedy.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola

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. Throughout the film you ardently root for her to succeed and pray that the two men who end up coming to blows over her (in an improbable and awkwardly staged fistfight) recognize her goodness, inner beauty and all-around specialness. ...What it is is a delicious piece of candy whose amusing package is scrawled with bons mots distantly inspired by Jane Austen. So was Clueless, now already six years old. Bridget Jones's Diary is the best and smartest film of its kind since then.

New York Times - Stephen Holden