Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)November 17th, 2004
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
Catch it on HBO
As fans of Helen Fielding's books generally agree, the second Bridget Jones book (on which this film is based) is the inferior work of the two about our hapless heroine. That said, one would hope, with the magical chemistry of the cast and the success of the filmmakers with the previous adaptation, that this film would be at least at 80% of the original's charm. Sadly, this is not the case.
It's the same screenwriter (adapting an inferior novel, in which quite a lot happens, actually), the same cast, a different director, but surelyŠoh what's the use. We have to start with characters and story, and the rest comes naturally with such actors on board. There's too much in the book to make a smooth film, but not enough of the right stuff was kept or the wrong stuff skimmed over.
It may surprise my readers that a Working Title British romantic comedy based on a popular chick lit novel got a lower rating than the sub-par movie Saw. Needless to say, it's all about bang for your buck. Edge of Reason relies very heavily on the cachet of Bridget Jones' Diary, including all characterization, and I mean ALL, all sense of affection or interest in the events of these people's lives, and particularly in an understanding of Bridget herself. I and my girl friends have been a Bridget Jones in various phases of our lives, so we don't have to work as hard at understanding her in context (and we all have read both books). A stranger off the street (one of my four companions) would have absolutely no reason to care about Bridget, be sympathetic to her, or care what she does with whom. Unfortunately, even Bridget's fans can't warm up to her here.
One thing I will say for Renee Zellweger - she is brave, brave brave. After the first Bridget where she "porked out" (to my target weight, grrr), she then overdieted to the point of Lara Flynn Boyle horror proportions; even in glamorous Chicago we could hardly stand to see her bony back. Here, Bridget is substantially pudgier, her skin splotchy, her hair actually as bad as mine is routinely (a rarity for a movie lead, or anyone not playing a crazy person), and the character squeezes herself into some truly awful outfits. The result should be a heroine we all can identify with; not some glowing goddess like Catherine Zeta-Jones or Julia Roberts, but a messy regular girl like us who can still be sexual and sexy and likable. This is a hard thing for any Hollywood actress to let herself do, even if we all know she does clean up really well.
The problem is, this time around the film forgot to make her likable. She's neurotic in a bunny-boiling way, she's impulsive and not funny, just self-absorbed and obsessive. We can't identify with her because we are recoiling with "oh god I hope I was never that crazy with what's-his-name!" She makes the mistakes we know she will make, she drives us mad, and we don't even have the affectionate comedy of the fantastic supporting cast or the combative hunks in her world to distract us.
Use the money to go upgrade your original Bridget Jones DVD to the new swanky collector's edition (pick me up one, will you?) and save your money on this movie.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
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