Rating: NNNN
BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY (Sharon Maguire) is the must-see female movie of the year (although the Bud Light commercial/trailer for the fictional 48-hour Sin And Sensitivity would rank right up there). Renee Zellweger pulls off the role of 32-year-old, weight-obsessed “singleton” Bridget, who’s smitten with her caddish boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and yet drawn to the snobbish barrister Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Author Helen Fielding, who created Bridget Jones, borrowed Jane Austen’s can’t-miss formula of duelling beaux from Pride And Prejudice, gave it an “if I’m so successful why am I alone?” spin and found herself awash in royalties. The movie has a warmer tone than the book, thanks to Zellweger’s sweet-natured Jones, who’s less self-loathing onscreen than in print. It also benefits from Richard Curtis’s awesome script. Curtis (The Tall Guy, Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill) has a wonderful ear for one-liners and pays attention to secondary characters like no other writer. 95 minutes. NNNN
