Che pasticcio, Bridget Jones!

Oh the expectations are high and the studio is bumping up the release date but what about the film? In the case of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, it was inevitable that the freshness and sheer pleasure of a funny, heartfelt love story of Bridget Jones's Diary, would be a hard act to top much less follow. While entertaining in its own way and filled with enough charm and wit to keep things moving and interesting, it is a step down for the Helen Fielding heroine. No Oscar nominations are forthcoming this time.

Not a couple months have passed as our favorite British journalist (played with gusto by Renee Zellweger) is dating her dream beau, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth returns as a noble steed). Slowly, our Bridget notices a young female clinging to her man on a regular basis, and with life full of its insecurities, doubts and suspicions are thus born. Enter handsome Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant is as dashing as ever) who wants to rekindle an earlier romance with Bridget who wonders if he has mended his philandering ways. That pretty well sums up the main storyline. There are a few other minor story threads such as Bridget's parents getting remarried, but they are few and far between.

Zellweger is always appealing even as an overweight, accident-prone romantic. Fans may be a bit startled to see her appearance after a few years of terrific performances in slimmed down roles. Firth, who was handpicked by author Fielding, duplicates his steady, straightlaced lawyer while Grant spices the sexual scenery with his bad boy ways. You will recognize returning supporting characters from before including James Broadbent as Bridget's dad, a role that is minimal at best.

While the screenplay has some nice bits of dialogue and one-liners, the whole thing just doesn't come together as a satisfying whole. There are no real surprises here in the story even though it contains a couple of mild shocks in plot line. The direction is not as crisp as before-this time Beeban Kidron(Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar) takes the helm in not quite inspired fashion. Where is original director, Sharon Maguire? Maybe frequent scribe Richard Curtis would have been perfect. Just one of his story lines in Love Actually is as good as or better than anything in Edge of Reason.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this film is that it is a chore to find anything truly engaging or to feel any sympathy and concern for Zellweger's character. In addition, there was an absence of really funny situations without seeming to be contrived. Maybe that's being picky, but that's the level of satisfaction Bridget Jones's original incarnation has engendered.

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!

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.

First, the positives – Colin and Hugh are still hitting their marks. Even though he might not know why, Mark positively adores Bridget. Colin gets that and twinkles, melts and warms in all the right places. Same goes for Daniel– he's drawn to his Bridge for some inexplicable reason. Hugh Grant really ought to be looking for a patent for that mojo he works so well. All of the original actors are back as Bridget's parents and her "dating war command" of pals and all have a natural, easy chemistry that works. But, the negatives, they are a-plenty.

Biggest problem here was the complete tone change. In the first film, we were on the ride with Bridget...seeing things through her eyes, groaning as she put her foot in her mouth again and cheering for her to finally get it right. However, in this movie, it feels like someone stuck her up on a stage and spent 2 hours throwing pies and tomatoes at her cause it seemed real cool. She's not in on the joke here, she IS the joke. Her few extra pounds are no longer just a part of the package – they are the end-all of her worth as a person. It feels like the folks behind this film don't even LIKE the character – they just think it's real cool to humiliate her as often as possible. It doesn't even look like they bothered to send Renee to makeup or wardrobe – she (as Bridget) was pleasantly plump in the first film, but never dowdy. The character is downright frumpy in this movie with a perpetual case of bed head and clothes that look like castoffs from Mayberry. And Renee plays into it with her acting choices – Bridget was frazzled in the first movie but still retained her dignity most of the time. She's a perpetual victim in this one, though, and even though Renee is still cute as a button and incredibly endearing, some of Bridget's spark is gone.

What happens after the happy ending? Couple realizes that they are each real, flawed people. And the movie makes it seem like Mark is at that point – never tries to change Bridget, never gets angry and her constant mishaps amuse more than annoy. But, as each of Bridget's tantrums unfolded, I kept asking myself why in the WORLD the man was still there. Bridget's keen on him but doesn't trust him. She likes to be with him but is suspicious of his actions without any real cause. Now, we know she's an insecure character and feels like she's not classy enough to fit into his world. And if the movie built from that, maybe we'd have a different story. But the obstacles they face are external. The characters never make decisions on their own – something or someone else makes them feel a certain way or forces them into a course of action that decides what will happen next. And Bridget's reactions almost make it seem like somehow, over the course of the last 'six weeks', she's regressed to a girl in the schoolyard stomping her feet when her boyfriend does something she doesn't like.

Another problem – the utter lack of subtlety. Why include one fat joke when 3 or 4 plus a butt shot can fit into the scene? Why spend most of the movie dropping hints about a reveal when you can beat the audience over the head with it in one of the final scenes? Why have Daniel make one joke about stealing Mark's wife when he can drop another one 30 minutes later? Oh look, matching Christmas jumpers – how cute. Most of the funny in this movie comes from certain 'episodes' as opposed to the dialogue. I loved the ski trip and Bridget's 'magic mushrooms' in Thailand. But, when the characters are actually talking to each other, they just aren't that funny. Most of the jokes are reruns from the first movie that feel stale. The naughty jokes are kicked up a notch but everyone in my packed theater, including me, either grimaced or sat stone-faced through most of them. Note to filmmakers: dirty has to actually BE funny to be funny.

This feels like a movie about a woman made by men who think wet clothes, girl-on-girl action and butt close-ups get it done. I read some interviews that said that Renee would only do a second film if it took care of Bridget and held up the standards of the first. I almost wonder if someone slid her this script on the first day of shooting as a rewrite once she'd already signed on the dotted line. This felt like a bleached, harsher version of the first– the warmth is gone. I know there was a different director and I really don't think the new kid gets why Bridget was/is such a phenomenon. As much as I was looking forward to this film, I wish they'd never done it.

Oh, and also, as a P.S. – if I was a Thai woman right now, I'd be suing Working Title and Miramax for defamation of character for their version of 'Fun with Stereotypes'.

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.......