Bridget Jones: L'âge de raison

The problem with a sequel is that expectations are high - particularly after a film as successful and engaging as BJ1. I knew already that the new film did not adhere to the second book so I didn't expect to be making comparisons. However, this movie was frankly ridiculous.

My problem with the film in main was that the character of Bridget was over-parodied. She is not supposed to be so much fatter than everyone around her, or as scatty and ungainly as she is portrayed in the film, which makes it harder to believe that there are 2 men and a woman after her.

The first film's success was due to the protagonist being charming and endearing - she made "human" mistakes (for example, the "blue soup") and fell for an unsuitable man who cheated on her. We felt sorry for her but also felt that she was funny and kooky and wanted her to "get her man" in the end. In this new movie she is frankly annoying, and we are almost incredulous that Mark Darcy should want her at all. They have nothing in common, the reason they break up at the beginning is not believable in any way, and the reasons they reunite are just as difficult to comprehend.

I also felt that the characterisations were not as layered as in the first movie, and the stupid lesbian twist didn't seem to make any sense.

It is a shame that they were so close yet so far with this new film, because in a way it negates the success and hilarity of the first one, which was a classic, intelligent portrayal of a 30-something singleton looking for her man. BJ2 is just a badly-made slapstick about a fat, unattractive girl who looks a complete mess and doesn't seem to have any self-awareness whatsoever. Sorry to be so harsh, but with the weight of the various names attached to the film, expectations were high.......

Having seen the first version, I was looking forward to a good laugh. However this movie really failed to live up to it. Actually perhaps the movie cannot be blamed for it since the storyline itself is quite ridiculous, There was no reason for the Darcy- Bridget split in the first place. Nor the absurd antics with Hugh Grant (the prostitute was in pretty poor taste). The mid-life crisis which is so refreshing in the first movie sounds boring and repetitive.

Renee Zelwegger, looks haggard and unattractive. Also she seems to be overly neurotic - a trait that begins to grate on the nerves. Darcy is passable. Only Hugh Grant shines - he plays the role of the scoundrel with aplomb.

The only high point of the movie is the reprise of the Firth-Grant fisticuff. It is as ludicrous as the first - perhaps even better.

This movie is even more disappointing than the first one. It's not helping anyone by insulting a perfectly normal weighing woman, by continually saying she's fat. She says it and so does everyone else. Which doesn't help anyone's view of what an actual healthy weight is. I googled how much Bridget Jones supposedly weighs and 130 for the height of 5'5 is perfectly acceptable and within normal BMI ranges. This is just another Hollywood hot mess that promotes false realities. What's even more insulting is that any woman would allow themselves to be so self depreciating. No wonder many women have bad body image when Hollywood plainly says even though you weigh a perfectly acceptable weight within your BMI, you're still fat. What a way to create a bunch of effed up people and to continue to promote a completely unhealthy and unrealistic view of how the world should look.

Sometimes sequels to a very good movie do not work as well, and this one unfortunately is one that does not work as well as its original. One person in our party watching this movie in fact called it "painful".

The original Bridget Jones Diary worked very well, at least in my opinion. It worked well not only because of a good story line, great casting and great acting, but the script and direction made the film also both witty and fun. In a sequel, often we are promised just part of that formula – the basic story line and a similar cast. Yes, this film does have a similar story line and a similar cast, but the script and the direction fall far short of the original. Hence instead of a witty fast paced fun movie where we laugh along with Bridget Jones, we have a slow moving non-funny movie that mostly seems to laugh at Bridget Jones and not with her.

The movie seems to lack the new elements that would make a sequel like this interesting. Instead it seems to fall back and simply exaggerate some of the elements of the first movie. It is "Over the Top" as one in Britain might say. Unfortunately this exaggeration tends to make things less funny and not funnier. In the first movie businessman Hugh Grant is mostly a businessman but is occasionally selfish and occasionally sexually selfish. In the second movie he spends less time as a businessman and more time just seeming out for himself. In the first movie, Bridget sometimes has low self-confidence. In the second movie, she almost always has low self-confidence. In the second movie, the Colin Firth character seems to try to be even more nerdy than in the first movie. In the first movie Bridget is plump. In the second movie, she is plumper. Now, I could afford to lose a few pound myself, but hopefully you get the idea. The second movie exaggerates the first trying for more laughs. But on the path it loses itself and is much less witty and funny.

Now, one cannot blame the actresses and actors for this. I felt that Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth did their usual great jobs. For that reason alone, this movie may be well worth watching for you. It was because of the actresses and actors that I wished to see it. To make the movie great, however, it needed a script and direction to match.

BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON (2004) ** Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Jacinda Barrett, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent. Zellweger reprises her role as the titular neurotic British journalist in a fairly charmless sequel picking up from her hook-up with the divinely prim Mark Darcy (Firth) and making a shambles of their relationship. The film fails in making its heroine go through one shamelessly awful slapstick induced comedy of errors eliciting very little humor that isn't particularly mean-spirited or ham-fisted no thanks to director Beeban Kidron who seems to relish in demeaning the bachelorette to no end.

And can we PLEASE have a moratorium on using Barry White's 'You're My First, My Last, My Everything' to underscore a character's actions!