Hysteria and the single girl

>> Bridget Jones's Diary is hot type

by JOANNE LATIMER

Bridget Jones's Diary gets off to a bad start, the same way that Bridget Jones herself makes a bad first impression: it's alternately sheepish, then overwrought. Listening to "All by Myself" in her PJs and drinking booze straight from the bottle, Bridget (Renée Zellweger) can hardly hold our attention through the opening credits.

Then, in true Bridget fashion, the film makes an astonishing turnaround. The pace picks up, Bridget gets a job in television and we even get to see her knickers. Bridget Jones's Diary is the newest, if not the truest, member of the hysterical spinster's club, following The House of Mirth and the Ashley Judd vehicle Someone Like You. Taken from Helen Fielding's runaway novel of the same name, Bridget Jones's Diary is a singleton's fairy tale, complete with job advancement and dreamboat Colin Firth. It's delicious cinematic escapism, in the guise of a wallflower's confessional. Let's face it: any film where the frazzled office girl gets to jilt a scoundrel like Hugh Grant is automatically a winner.

Acting as the female bookend to High Infidelity, Bridget Jones's Diary takes up the cause of lonely hearts in a world formulated for couples. We share her dread of the Christmas holidays, fielding questions about her love life and spending time with her smug, married friends. She's constantly humiliated by her mother's attempts to fix her life, and her boss's (Hugh Grant) refusal to acknowledge her capabilities--out of the sack.

Holding the entire project together is a character called Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), otherwise known as the knight in shining armour. Firth grounds the film with his quiet intensity and acts as stable counterpoint to our Bridget. It's all hopelessly old fashioned, but fun nonetheless. Go ahead, sweep her off her feet! Firth wins a victory for nice guys everywhere by outshining the slick and sleazy Hugh Grant character.

This is director Sharon Maguire's first crack at a feature film but she's no novice, having helmed extensive documentary work at the BBC. Oh, and to those who want to diminish the film by tagging it a chick flick? As Bridget would say, "Sod off."

Bridget Jones's Diary opens Friday, April 13