30 Second Bottom Line: A single woman in her 30's wants to settle down with a man in a long-term relationship. Her choices are her fickle boss or a bedrock conservative she has known since childhood.

Story Line: Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) works in a London publisher's office, where she has a special knack for embarrassing herself with what she wears and the things she says. She catches the eye (and other body parts she's been after) of her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) and they have an affair. Daniel's considerable charms, embodied as they are in Hugh Grant, don't quite redeem him here. When he gets a promotion to the New York office, he announces that he has more than a passing interest in the woman from NYC that has been on a temporary assignment working at the office in London. Bridget once again loses her lover and, she declares in her diary to change her life by doing all the right things; to eat properly, to ease up on the drinking and smoking, and exercise 3-5 times a week. From that point on, however, her diary entries begin with increases in her weight.

Bridget's mother Pam (Gemma Jones), during her annual holiday parties, always tries to fix her up with a man. This year the lucky guy is a lawyer, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Firth recalls the other Mr. Darcy role he portrayed in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, for A&E TV. Mark and Bridget played together as children and as her mother reminds her, he saw her with her clothes off, splashing in a wading pool. That embarrasses Bridget and as she avoids eye contact with Mark she notices his holiday sweater has a big silly looking reindeer face on it. She then realizes that she is not the only socially inept person in the room, wearing funny clothes. Her mother bought her a party outfit in a brocade fabric that would look better covering a sofa.

Although there is an attraction between Mark and Bridget, Mark is already spoken for, with his near-engagement to Natasha (Embeth Davidtz). Will Bridget get her man? And if so, will it be Daniel, Mark or some truly fresh meat?

Tell Me More About It: Zellweger showed us in Nurse Betty that she can really get into a character. She does that here, but the surrounding characters and the overall story are not quite as interesting. I will admit I've not read the best-selling book, but the movie should stand on it's own (e.g. Along Came a Spider and Hannibal). The popularity of the book and the buzz on the film had me expecting witty banter and a sort of Everywoman character. Missed on both counts. Blowzy is the word that comes to mind to describe Bridget for me. She appears to be just this side of tipsy most of the time, with both her underwear and her opinions often overexposed.

Ashley Judd in Someone Like You did a more effective job of portraying a single woman, lonely for a long term relationship, and dealing with many of the same issues and problems in trying to find a man. Bridget has relationships with both Daniel and Mark and neither one appears to be a prize.

Zellweger does a wonderful job with the British accent. Hugh Grant is more of a cad than we're used to seeing him play (art imitating life?) and Colin Firth is a great Darcy…no matter which century. Cast alone recommends this film.

Much is made of panties and derrieres in this movie; true, with a bit more class than usual. As many of you have heard, Zellweger does a scene where she runs down the street in her panties. I thought it would be just an event in the film rather than THE event in the film. It was cute but it left me feeling a little flat. Perhaps Bridget could do with a bit more soul-searching in that diary.

Renee Zellweger: Nurse Betty	Hugh Grant: Small Time Crooks
Colin Firth: My Life so Far	Embeth Davidtz: Simon Magus
Gemma Jones: The Winslow Boy	Sharon Maguire: Debut

Bridget Jones: Renee Zellweger	Daniel Cleaver: Hugh Grant
Mark Darcy: Colin Firth	Natasha: Embeth Davidtz
Pam Jones: Gemma Jones	Director: Sharon Maguire