Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason

In 2001, Bridget Jones emerged as one of the most popular contemporary female characters to grace the silver screen. Based on Helen Fielding's bestselling novel of the same name (which itself helped kick off the publishing industry's current chick-lit craze), Bridget Jones's Diary was released during the heyday of TV shows like Sex and the City, Friends, and Ally McBeal. Unlike the women on those shows, however, Bridget didn't boast a killer wardrobe, a rail-thin body, or a high-powered job. While she was witty, she didn't make cultural references likely to be grasped exclusively by urban dwellers. She drank too much, smoked too much, ate too much, went after the wrong man, and generally made a spectacle of herself. She may not have been a character modern women looked up to, but they certainly identified with one or more of the situations she found herself in.

Given the degree to which this everywoman quality struck a nerve (the original ranks as one of the most financially successful romantic comedies of recent years), it is no surprise that a sequel was put into the works soon after. Like the first movie, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) is only loosely based on the Fielding novel of the same name. In this case, the changes from book to script allot more screentime for Hugh Grant's toxic bachelor Daniel Cleaver, who enlivens every scene he's in.

Unfortunately, this is not a difficult task to pull off, as The Edge of Reason often comes up short in the adrenaline department, with scene after scene being played out as a half-hearted rehash of popular comic moments from the original. Again, we watch Bridget humiliating herself on national television, Darcy and Cleaver trading blows, Bridget enduring another one of her mother's turkey curry buffets, and Bridget embarrassing herself in front of Darcy's snooty friends. However, unlike the original, which had a cohesive storyline and character arc, The Edge of Reason feels like a series of random events strung together for no particular purpose.

At the end of Bridget Jones's Diary, we witnessed true love prevail, with Bridget safely ensconced in the arms of dashing human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). In the sequel, we watch Bridget (Renee Zellweger) and Darcy navigate the bumpy road of romance, with varying degrees of success. It's supposed to show what happens after the happily-ever-after, but, despite some laugh-out-loud moments, most of the film ultimately seems better suited to the bonus scenes section of the original Bridget Jones's Diary DVD.