Bridget Jones' Dull Diary

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After a very successful initial outing three years ago, this storyline – girl talks for two hours as if she’s writing in her diary and tells us about her pathetic love life – reminds me of that old adage about beating a dead horse. The proof is in the list of writers that take up a page of credits at the end of the movie. This list of “ands” indicates problems in scripting, “and” that is where this film died, in the hands of the writers.

There is great star power here and each player provides a credible performance as the exact same character they played in the first film. Renee Zellweger, as Bridget Jones, again gains forty pounds for the roll, and as the new generation Lucy we follow her waddling efforts at relationship building through a series of mishaps. Colin Firth gives us the same reliable, compulsive/obsessive, passionless rock in the character of Mark Darcy, as he did in the first film, but by now I’m beginning to believe that this may be the only role he can play. And, Hugh Grant, always the cad as Daniel Cleaver .... well, by now you get it; nothings changed, except Hugh gets all the best lines. The only ray of light in this film is the group of friends that continue to provide bad advice. It’s too bad that the writers didn’t have the sense to lead the horse down this path; these folks are actually funny.

It’s not that this movie is without some small bit of charm, but it’s all provided by the power of the cast and eventually (about 20 minutes in) this wears away as we begin to feel a dreaded sense of deja vu. Films with strong Main Characters, especially films named for the lead, must provide events that truly challenge that character (are you writers paying attention?) and the problem here is that nothing really challenges Bridgette. That is, nothing that we really care about. She simply ambles from one embarrassing moment to the next. Movies are like any business and some movies are similar to sports franchise’s in that if they build a following the first time out they are able to repeat their success with that same loyal group. I enjoyed the first of Bridget’s series of misadventures immensely, and that is why this film is such a disappointment. At this point, if there is a sequel to this sequel, Bridget will have to be in the company of the Cat Woman, Indira Ghandi and the entire bench of the Detroit Pistons to get my money. My prediction is that this franchise is about as dead as that horse. Please put the whip down.