Review of Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason

Introduction

Same Bridget, Different Diary as the sell-line for this picture goes. I`ve had to rush this review a little as Universal`s PR company is pressing even though I only got the review copy a couple of days ago. It didn`t stop me enjoying the picture, though.

The movie picks up a month after the first picture ended, with ever the romantic Bridget (Renee Zellweger) still in the first flush of romance with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Unsurprisingly before long complications arise and Bridget, suddenly single again, finds herself on a flight to Bangkok with the louche Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). An encounter with friend Shazzer`s holiday romance lands her in deep water…

Helen Fielding`s novels about dumpy singleton Bridget Jones were a raging bestseller phenomenon long before Working Title made the first movie in 2001. Three years on (but only a month in Bridget`s universe), Beeban Kidron takes over the directorial reins from Sharon MacGuire and places Bridget of a bigger, wider stage which takes her from her Mum`s turkey curry buffet to the distant shores of Thailand.

The sense of humour is still there - Bridget`s internal monologue, her frequent attacks of foot-in-mouth disease and her inability to cruise through life without something embarrassing happening to her. Once again her love life is complicated by Mark Darcy`s uptight personality and Daniel Cleaver`s Casanova ways, but her biggest problem is landed in her lap by her friend Shazzer when she accompanies Bridget to Thailand as chaperone.

Charm. That`s what this picture has lashings of. Even the characters you`re supposed to dislike are disarmingly likeable. Gross-out humour and sheer stupidity is at a low, and the script is loaded with smart lines. Why can`t more movies be like this?

Video

As anamorphic transfers of 2.35:1 movies go, this one is immaculate. Beautifully photographed by Adrian Biddle, the image on the disc is clear, sharp, colourful and completely free of digital artefacts, as one would hope for with a movie that is absolutely brand spanking new.

Audio

The sound for the movie is a brilliantly immersive Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that applies to both sound effects and the score. The score is loaded with musical puns and jokes, with one that will especially appeal to Bond fans.

Features

When you put the disc in and press play, you are given the option to just watch the movie, or watch it with a quiz which interrupts the movie from time to time to ask a multiple choice question. You answer with the remote and at the end of the movie, it tells you whether you`re a Daniel Cleaver or a Mark Darcy sort of girl (or bloke if you`re that way inclined, I suppose).

The supplementary features on the disc are character themed from a central menu. Under Bridget Jones (in the middle) are the options for the audio commentary for the movie by director Beeban Kidron, a short promo piece on the Ski Trip to Lech and a group of deleted scenes, each introduced by Beeban Kidron.

To the left of Bridget is Daniel Cleaver, whose menu offers The Smooth Guide To Thailand - behind the scenes of the Bangkok shoot; The Big Fight - you didn`t think Cleaver and Darcy could get through the picture without another embarrassingly unmanly ruck, did you? Lastly there`s the "Who`s Your Man" quiz, which you can do in one quick go from this menu without watching the whole movie.

Mark Darcy`s menu has a nice short promo piece called Mark and Bridget Forever which goes over the two-picture romance. Beeban Kidron introduces a fascinating CGI shot called Lonely London in a second piece and most strangely of all is a third option called Bridget Jones Interviews Colin Firth. In the book of The Edge Of Reason, Bridget interviews actor Colin Firth. The problem this causes for the movie is that Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy. To see if the gag would work, Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth stayed back late one night to film an interview - her in character and him out of character. She`s fixated about his wet shirt appearance in the BBC`s Pride and Prejudice and he`s trying to promote his new movie. It`s a cute sequence and could have worked with a simple scene of her later on looking at Mark Darcy, then narrowing her eyes and saying she`d never noticed before but he reminds her terribly of Colin Firth. He`d look hurt and say he looks nothing like Colin Firth. Then concede at least she didn`t say he looked like Hugh Grant.

The movie and extras are fully subtitled - a nice bonus for hard of hearing viewers. The extras are completed with a group of three trailers on their own menu - the other big Working Title rom-com Wimbledon, the upcoming Meet The Fockers and Billy Elliott The Musical.

Conclusion

A deliciously frivolous piece of filmmaking. The first Bridget Jones picture was small and very introspective. This movie keeps the introspection and the embarrassing incidents and paints them on a much wider canvas. Bridget is adorable from beginning to end and is much too good for either tight-arsed Mark Darcy or unmitigated swine Daniel Cleaver. I hope they go for a third picture because this saga could run and run.