Mixed reviews for Bridget sequel
The highly-anticipated Bridget Jones sequel has received mixed reviews.
Last night’s premiere of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was greeted by thousands of fans in Leicester Square.
The movie’s stars, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, delighted the crowd by turning out at the event.
But fans could be disappointed when they go and see the much-hyped second movie, according to some critics.
For others though, film two is even better than the original, Bridget Jones’s Diary.
The Edge of Reason sees hapless thirtysomething Bridget in the throes of a relationship with human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (Firth).
But all is not well – she is becoming increasingly paranoid about his relationship with a certain female colleague, and at the same time is wondering whether he would ever pop the question.
Bridget’s ex, Daniel Cleaver (Grant), is back on the scene but up to his old tricks.
Today The Times newspaper calls Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason a “whimsical sequel” which is “fat with comic set-pieces but spookily thin on real substance”.
It says: “The flatulent plot doesn’t flatter her (Zellweger’s) feckless charm.”
The plot is a “stretch too far, even for the writing might of Richard Curtis and Helen Fielding”, critic James Christopher says.
“I fear fans will be disappointed.”
The Independent newspaper says there are “toe-curling moments too numerous to note”.
It says the scenes which see Bridget locked up in a Thai jail do not really work in the romantic comedy.
“However charming the genuinely funny moments are in grand London houses and pompous Law Society dinners, they can but grate when bought so close to the genuine depravity and horror that ought to be represented in that prison,” Oliver Marr says.
But Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell calls the movie a “triumph”.
She says it is “wonderfully true to the spirit of the books, equally as funny as the first film and with an equally dark underside”.
An earlier review by Daily Mail film critic Christopher Tookey said the movie was “even better than the original”.
“I confidently predict it will be the biggest British hit of all time – an outstanding romantic comedy, with no fewer than three performances that deserve to be regarded as classics,” he said.
Fans of the chardonnay-swilling cigarette-smoking thirtysomething will not be disappointed, according to a review last month in The Sun newspaper.
“Overall, it is Zellweger who makes the sequel sing. The Texas-born actress has perfected an English accent far superior to any of her Hollywood contemporaries.
“From her funny facial expressions and unladylike waddle to her unguarded but endearing sensitivity, she is one of us – a mirror image of how many single British women see themselves,” Sharon Hendry, the newspaper’s Woman Editor wrote.
The Mirror newspaper wrote that Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, is “a film that’s by far and away the best British comedy of the year”.
“Even better than the 2001 original, I guarantee you’ll be blown away by its laugh-out-loud humour and utterly entranced by Zellweger as the hapless thirtysomething,” David Edwards wrote last month.
