(Rated R) At the start of the new year, 32-year old ‘singleton” Bridget Jones decides it is time to take control of her life and starts keeping a diary. Now, the provocative, erotic and hysterical book on her bedside table is the one she’s writing that encompasses men, exercise, sex and married friends. Based on the novel and loosely based on “Pride and Prejudice”, stars Renee Zellweger as Bridget, her childhood best friend is Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who seems so wrong he could be right, and Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), her scoundrel boss, who seems too good to be true. The movie allows Grant to show his bad boy rogue side memorable for his real life philandering with “Divine Brown”, in which he’s quite enticing yet leaves the audience wondering why Bridget would want such an unobtainable lover. Pal Mark Darcy comes off as somewhat cardboard, but either way, these men of her life is why she keeps a diary. Zellweger delivers a wonderful comic performance (perhaps some of that Jim Carrey romance rubbed off), but she’s not as well-received as the girl we loved in “Jerry Maguire”, despite making a convincing Brit! Hats off to her dialect coach. If all that was intended was slap-stick humor, the movie succeeds at entertaining but somehow its theme doesn’t transcend to all women. It’s no “Annie Hall.”
