Her mother is an overconfident, doting woman who is constantly trying to marry Bridget off to a rich, handsome man and her father is considerably more down-to-earth, though he is sometimes driven into uncharacteristically unstable states of mind by his wife.īridget often visits her parents, as well as her parents' friends, primarily Geoffrey and Una Alconbury Geoffrey creates a mildly uncomfortable situation for Bridget by insisting she call him "Uncle Geoffrey" despite his propensity for groping her rear end whenever they meet. Her friends are essentially her surrogate family in London.īridget's parents live outside of the city, and while they play a lesser role than her friends, they are important figures in Bridget's life. These friends are there for her unconditionally throughout the novel they give her advice about her relationships, and support when problems arise. Bridget's friends and family are the supporting characters in her diary.
These two men are connected by more than their relationships with Bridget, as Fielding reveals near the end of the novel.īridget not only obsesses about her love life, but also details her various daily struggles with her weight, her over-indulgence in alcohol and cigarettes, and her career. Bridget's second relationship is with the stuffy human-rights barrister Mark Darcy, whom she initially dislikes when they are reintroduced at a New Year's party where her mother reminds them they were childhood playmates. The first is with her charming and handsome boss Daniel Cleaver, who eventually cheats on Bridget with a younger, more conventionally attractive woman. However, during the course of the year she becomes involved in two romantic relationships. She worries on a regular basis about dying without someone and going on to be eaten by dogs when her singleness causes her death not to be discovered promptly, an obsession that a USA Today reviewer called "one of more cheerful daydreams". Despite Zellweger’s prowess for physical comedy and Firth’s uncanny ability to maintain a stiff upper lip without being completely pompous, the two sleepwalk through most of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, proving once and for all that in Hollywood, a successful sequel is about as likely as Bridget Jones losing 10 pounds, marrying Mark Darcy, and living happily ever after.The plot is focused on Bridget's love life.
As for Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth, they’re far less believable in their roles as the would-be couple separated by a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, and even appear to have lost some of that magnetic chemistry they captured in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Let alone be herself.Įveryone involved in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason seems out of place, with the exception of Hugh Grant, who steals the show, thanks to a hilarious scene in which his character, the naughty but not so nice Daniel Cleaver, gets caught in a compromising position with a Thai call girl, whose name might as well have been Devine Tan. Now, instead of being a sassy, self-deprecating singleton, with a penchant for cigarettes, granny panties, and the occasional early morning shag, she’s become an uptight, self-centered nitwit, who’s so consumed by love that she can hardly function. Before what made Bridget Jones such a charming character was her ability to laugh at herself no matter what kind of awkward situation she managed to get into.
Mark Darcy that she’s completely lost her sense of humor. Sure, Bridget is still the same chubby blonde with cheeks the size of giant Gobstoppers and an ass as big as two bowling balls, but now she’s so obsessed with becoming Mrs. Although, the real problem with Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason isn’t that it suffers from an unmistakable form of déjà vu, but that it turns the character of Bridget Jones into someone the audience hardly recognizes.