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Show __ WASATCH COUNTY COURIER APRIL 18, 2001 oe ae ADVERTISEMENT Low Interest Rates rae Home ‘Heber City, UT- Because Nothing Exceeds Like Excess Bridget Jones’s Diary fix her up with a stuffy barrister. Played | by Colin Firth, Mark Darcy, is so aristo-cratically snotty, that we (and Bridget). are encouraged to take an instant dislike, which, in the logic of romantic Cinema can only mean one thing—meant 1/2 STARS _ DIRECTED BY SHARON MAGUIRE. WRITTEN BY HELEN FIELDING, ANDREW DAVIES AND RICHARD CURTIS; BASED ON THE NOVEL BY HELEN FIELDING. STARRING RENEE ZELLWEGER, COLIN FIRTH, HUGH GRANT, JIM BROADBENT AND GEMMA JONES. for each other. As if to make sure we get the drift, we’re told a childhood anecdote in which a naked Bridget is reput- - as the “F” word used more ever been ly British (even Renée Bp Robard ise 7 insiders.) Diary? That the film is so thorough- By the same romantic rationale, what turns out to be the heart of the be the reason the word and its vari- ations sound so brash, bumptious - and charmingly indecorous here. _ As Bridget, the screen version of Robards says _ movie, Bridget’s ultimate disillusion at the hands of her dreamboat boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). The embodiment of everything that Bridget has warned herself against in _He’s _ makes their dalliance ONLY $315,000 for valor over and above the call of | hits bottom. we may be forgetting to notice that underneath the cynicism is a vulnerable and straight-talking character who © ic members of her audience. However, with the added meat on her bones and a smirky overlay of ambrosial self-irony, Zellweger delivers the performance of her young life a publicity assistant at a She man- i conaseaneieaNS 2 ages to top everything she’s done so far in such underrated pictures as The Whole Wide World and Nurse Betty, all the while expunging the bad taste left by her providentially transient tryst. with Jim Carrey. (Thankfully the only professional residue was a particularly: _ loathsome movie, Me, Myself & Irene.) Under the opening credits, Bridget’s parents RUTH (435) 654-7444 or toll free (866) 951-4663 j SUBSCRIPTION BAS NEWSPAPER IN WASATCH COUNTY. (Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent), whose own relationship is strained, are attempting to’ 2 REACH YOUR AUDIENCE. 7 _ Among the subplots retained from the novel, one works and the other one muddles through. Bridget’s mum’s ludicrous but somehow touching affair with a television shopping show pitchman, and her dad’s pathetic relegation — to pajamad couch potato, as he watches his marriage breakup play out on the — tube, helps explain Bridget’s own — ragged romantic existence. Meanwhile, her coterie of carousing friends, Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Tom (Games Callis) Henderson), and who Jude cheer (Shirley or i ; : ; fill out his bloodless character and we must begin to see him through Bridget’s eyes. He’s a big, silly hunk of British manhood who loves her as much as we do. Hi ° : ; WASATCH COUNTY ; — Wasatch County’ s Suhre for News every blip along her heart’s quixotic cle back to Darcey, Firth must begin to ‘ i oe ; mourn - course, are amusing but thinly drawn. For us to accept Bridget’s long cir- . ; ri a rising Hollywood star might be to briefly resemble ordinary, non-anorex- post-modern CALL FOR SALE UNDER $40,000 surprised how much we care when she the role, as if the ultimate sacrifice for publishing house. HEBER CITY LOT has a real hold on our emotions. We’re duty for agreeing to gain 20 pounds for oleae thease - thing for the movie, because while Bridget i is setting herself up for disaster, we’re laughing so hard London Call for details lesludidg the Salt Lake Teibanie: Deseret News and the Wasatch Wave. all the more delicious. All of this is a fine Home alone: ‘Bends Jeliweder in Bridget Jones's Diary. maniacs, sexual predators, workaholics, voyeurs and vainglorious peacocks. She is terrified of dying alone and fat, between the teeth of marauding Alsatian dogs—or so she tells her diary. Some critics are praising Zellweger as Jones, i and what’s more he is - Bridget’s boss, which erate her behavior and point have run to dipso- _ handsome, , shameless and without | a shred of conscience, her resolutions to modparticularly her choices | in men, which to this _ de sac in Midway. © her diary, Cleaver is the ultimate smooth and ruthless retrogressive Fielding’s novel (which became an_ with the lines of a yacht and.the moral _ international cause celebre), Zellweger cargo of a garbage scow. His repartee scatters profanities. like sen-sen on her is as hard and polished as the plate tongue, as if.to cleanse the palate glass of his office window through between bouts of her prodigious intake | which he watches Bridget flaunt her of food, liquor and nicotine. short skirts and see-through tops, a Director Sharon Vasa S conceit daily show for colleagues. | as extrapolated from the Fielding Grant is awfully good at this stuff and novel—the novelist co-wrote the you get a feeling Maguire is using him — -screenplay—is that excess (swearing, as wish fulfillment bait, not only for smoking, drinking, , . , Zellweger, but 30s-_ overeating and yes, | | _ something women sex) by a 32-year-old | _ packing early audiwoman can -be funny, § _ ences for this picture. especially if leavened by 3 Contractor’s Own. Lots of extras on newer cul the recklessly wanton heroine of Helen a heartfelt longing to reform. Bridget’s diary is meant to chronicle | ae “THIS IS A DOGGONE GOOD BUY” | of stupefying miscommunications, and accent is Brit that won’t quit) may aed Realty Ruth Bridget must take the long way round to get back to Darcy through a series Zellweger's _ today to find how they can help you. 435-654- -LOAN(5626) _ er lower their payment and put money in their pocket by — _ refinancing. Madison himself played in the BBC adaptation of the novel—the movie’s blatant joke for divertingly than in Bridget Jones’s _ best way for you to take can now lower their house _ advantage of the current _ payments. Many are able to " market conditions. Call Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that Firth lavishly and ~ ~ 1994. They can explain the last month, home owners ed to have played in Darcy’s wading pool. 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