Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding was essentially a romantic comedy in novel, so it was no surprise when it found its way onto film. Reneé Zellweger put on an impeccable English accent and a certain amount of weight to play Bridget in Helen Fielding’s own screenplay.
Mark Darcy Played by Colin Firth
Of course, much of the fun in the original Bridget Jones’ Diary came from the staccato prose style, heavily indebted by E.M. Delafield’ Diary of a Provincial Lady. In the screenplay, Fielding kept much of this by simply giving Zellweger narrative voice-overs, and on one memorable occasion, scrawling an expletive subtitle along the bottom of the screen. Some jokes obviously have to be altered: the golfing jumper worn by Mark Darcy at the turkey curry buffet wasn’t quite as funny if it wasn’t followed by the disquisition on why such items warned of instant incompatibility. So Fielding swapped it for an excellent reindeer-themed sweater, which also allowed Mark to deliver one of the most brilliant apologies in rom-com “I realise that when I first met you, I was unforgivably rude, and....wearing a reindeer jumper...”
Mark Darcy is played, of course, by Colin Firth (who else?), providing yet another layer of intertextual complexity to the novel’s existing involvement with Jane Austen. Firth plays the character with just the right level of hauteur, without succumbing to the temptation of making him into a parody of his role in Pride and Prejudice. Daniel Cleaver was played by High Grant, in what must have been an attempt to shed the “nice guy” typecasting of his previous roles. As Zellweger gives the rundown of Cleaver’s worst qualities, and the elevator doors slide open to reveal Grant, he takes an unusually long beat before walking out – with an air of glorying in his new role.
Bridget Jones' is a Very Quotable Film
As with the novel, Bridget Jones’ Diary is an extremely quotable film, spawning a number of rather unusual phrases: “Hello, Mummy!”, “F**k me, absolutely enormous pants!”, “Quick! Real fight!” and “There isn’t enough blue food” amongst them. It can hardly be accused of being untrue to the spirit of the original, despite the necessary adaptation required for making a film, since Fielding herself wrote the screenplay. Of course, the spirit of the original wasn’t to everyone’s taste: at best it was chick-lit with a touch of intelligence, at worst it was immature calorie-counting nonsense. But Bridget Jones’ Diary is an entertaining cut above the usual romantic comedy crowd, which still maintains the happy ending alongside some ironic awareness of the genre.
Jem Bloomfield - Jem Bloomfield was educated at the universities of Oxford and Exeter, and is currently working on a PhD on Webster's revenge tragedy "The ...
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