Bridget Jones's Diary (2001, US/UK)

In director Sharon Macguire's comedy-romance based upon Helen Fielding's popular 1996 novel (a reinterpretation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride & Prejudice), it told about the disastrous love life of a 30-something, unattached, plump, ever-single London Britisher female with a job in publishing; she was always embarrassed and contending with her over-indulgent drinking, smoking, and eating, while seeking someone to love; its tagline was: "ALL WOMEN KEEP SCORE...ONLY THE GREAT ONES PUT IT IN WRITING"

• it was widely noted that Bridget Jones' romance with Mark Darcy mirrored Elizabeth Bennet's romance with Fitzwilliam Darcy in the novel Pride & Prejudice; Bridget also worked at Pemberley Press - the name of Darcy's estate in the book; there were also parallels between George Wickham and his modern philandering counterpart Daniel Cleaver

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) at Work at London's Pemberley Press	Bridget's Editor-in-Chief Publisher Boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant)	Bridget's Detested Proper Childhood Friend-Acquaintance Mark Darcy (Colin Firth)
Bridget Jones and Her Two Romantic Rivals

• at a New Years Day "turkey curry buffet" party in 1999 at her mother's place, attempts were vainly made to set up overweight 32 year-old London book publisher assistant Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) with staid, proper-acting 36 year-old divorced barrister Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who was home visiting his parents (neighboring friends of her family); when viewing him from the back, she thought to herself: "Maybe this time Mum had got it right...Maybe this was the mysterious Mr. Right I'd been waiting my whole life to meet"; after she caught a glimpse of Mark's ugly reindeer Christmas sweater, she added to herself that she had changed her mind: "Maybe not"; according to her mother (Gemma Jones), she had apparently known him since childhood, running around naked on his lawn
• Bridget told Mark that she was slightly hung-over from the previous night's London party and vowed to reform this next year: "New Year's Resolution: drink less, oh, and quit smoking, hmm, and keep New Year's resolutions, and stop talking total nonsense to strangers - in fact, stop talking, full stop"
• she happened to overhear Mark complaining to his mother (Charmian May) about being set up: "Mother, I do not need a blind date. Particularly not with some verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, and dresses like her mother"; Bridget mused to herself: "That was the moment. I suddenly realized that unless something changed soon, I was going to live a life where my major relationship was with a bottle of wine and I'd finally die fat and alone..." as the title credits began to play to the tune of "All By Myself" by Jamie O'Neal
• she vowed to keep a record for the next year as her New Years' resolution - to document her progress in a diary about reaching all of her personal goals to attain a more perfect life (finding a boyfriend, losing weight, and drinking and smoking less); Bridget wrote in her diary (voice-over): "I had to make sure that next year, I wouldn't end up s--t-faced and listening to sad FM, easy-listening for the over-thirties. I decided to take control of my life and start a diary to tell the truth about Bridget Jones, the whole truth. Resolution #1: Oh - obviously will lose 20 lbs. #2: Always put last night's panties in the laundry basket. Equally important: will find nice sensible boyfriend to go out with and not continue to form romantic attachments to any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional f--kwits, or perverts. And especially will not fantasize about a particular person who embodies all these things. Unfortunately, he just happens to be my boss..."
• against her lofty intentions, Bridget decided to pursue her rakish, disreputable and sleazy editor-in-chief publisher boss Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), an "office scoundrel," who sent her provocative and vulgar emails ("Like your tits in that top"); she even fantasized marrying him, and then he invited her to a dinner date that she put off but eventually accepted; she sought advice for the date and was told to look "gorgeous" and to "ooze intelligence"; she prepped herself with a pedicure, shower, self-waxing, and choice of "granny" panties -- "scary stomach-holding-in panties"

Bridget's Choice of "Granny" Panties for Her Date with Daniel

Bridget's Awkward and Rambling Book-Launch Speech

• before her evening's date, she attended her publishing house's book launch where she happened to see Mark again, and imagined describing him as "a prematurely middle-aged prick"; Mark introduced Bridget to his condescending law colleague Natasha Glenville (Embeth Davidtz), a top family law attorney, and then snidely remarked about Bridget: "Bridget works in publishing and used to play naked in my paddling pool"; at the book launch event, Bridget spoke before the audience (with a malfunctioning microphone) to announce "Kafka's Motorbike" - advertised as the "Greatest Book of Our Time" - and delivered an awkward, semi-insulting, rambling speech; when introducing Daniel's boss Mr. Fitzherbert (Paul Brooke), she mispronounced his name as "Tits Pervert"; afterwards, Daniel falsely claimed Bridget had exhibited "oratorical fireworks" and complimented her on her "very sexy" look
• during dinner, Bridget explained how she knew Mark: "Apparently, I used to run 'round naked in his paddling pool" - Daniel quipped: "I bet you did, you dirty bitch"; then he revealed an on-going rivalry between Mark and himself, who were "mates" who had attended Cambridge University together; however, many years later, Daniel claimed that he had made a "somewhat catastrophic mistake" of introducing Mark to his fiancée - without providing any further details; they agreed that Mark was a "bastard"
• after their dinner date (and some kissing), they retreated to Daniel's place where the film's funniest scene occurred; Bridget's special tummy-holding-in pants (called "enormous") were embarrassingly uncovered while she and Daniel were kissing and rolling around on the floor; however, Daniel told her that he liked them: "Now these are very silly little boots, Jones. And this is a very silly little dress. And, um, these are, uhm, f--k me, absolutely enormous panties...No, no. Don't apologize. I like them. Hello, Mummy (they kiss). I'm sorry, I have to have another look. They're too good to be true...They're nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm wearing something quite similar myself"
• for the next few days, they were regular sex-partners sleeping together, and Bridget worried if they would be noticed differently at the office; when the phone rang (it was her mother), she jokingly answered: "Bridget Jones, wanton sex goddess with a very bad man between her thighs"
• Bridget felt that she had finally found her man (voice-over: "Hurrah. Am no longer tragic spinster, but proper girlfriend of bona fide sex god so committed that he's taking me on a full-blown mini-break holiday weekend"; Daniel took Bridget to a country inn, and she turned hopeful: (voice-over: "This can't be just shagging. A mini-break means true love. Suddenly feel like screen goddess in manner of Grace Kelly"); two of the guests at the inn turned out, unfortunately, to be Mark and Natasha taking a "work" weekend; that evening, when Bridget asked twice if Daniel loved her, he refused to answer and implied that he would have "illegal" sex (oral or anal sex?) with her a second time as punishment
• on Sunday morning, Daniel left early with a questionable excuse that he had to return to London for work, leaving Bridget alone to attend a "Tarts and Vicars" costume party wearing a Playboy bunny costume; she thought to herself as she walked in: "Seems unnatural, wrong even, for 60-year-olds to dress up as prostitutes and priests on a Sunday afternoon"; she immediately realized she was out-of-place with no one else in costume since she wasn't notified that the costume contest had been cancelled; she received many insults, aghast laughter and abrasive looks for her sexy outfit
• when she returned to London in the afternoon, she was suspicous that Daniel had a female visitor and asked: "Is there someone here?", but Daniel denied having any company; she agreed to meet up with him later for dinner, but then found an incriminating pink sweater in the hallway; she returned to Daniel's upstairs bathroom and found a naked Lara (Lisa Barbuscia), an American colleague from the New York office; she was seated on the edge of Daniel's bathtub with just an oversized book (Pemberley Press) covering her; Daniel had been caught red-handed - cheating; Lara insultingly asked Daniel: "I thought you said she was thin"
• Bridget was devastated and ended up on her couch watching Glenn Close becoming an obsessed, homicidal 'wronged woman' in Fatal Attraction (1987); switching the TV channel, she tuned into a nature show exhibiting a male lion penetrating a female lioness and then walking off; back at work, Bridget was told by Daniel that he had known Lara previously, and that they were now engaged; Bridget vowed to herself that she would stay strong: "I will not be defeated by a bad man and an American stick insect. Instead, I choose vodka and Chaka Khan"; a montage of Bridget working out and carrying on with her life (discarding and buying a new set of self-help books) was viewed to the tune of Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman"
• Bridget decided to find new work in television (and proceeded to attend job interviews) and also to break ties with Daniel; when he claimed she needed to give six weeks' notice before quitting and was offered promotions to stay, she refused to accept any deals with Daniel: "But if staying here means working within 10 yards of you, frankly, I'd rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse"; to the tune of Aretha Franklin's "Respect," she walked off the job
• while on a live-feed TV reporting assignment for "Sit Up Britain" at the Lewisham fire-station, Bridget was instructed to wear make-up, dress in a mini-skirt, wear a fireman's helmet, hold a hose, and slide down a fire pole; during filming, she descended butt-first into the camera, knocking down the cameraman and providing a quick glimpse of her panties; she felt she was a "national laughing-stock" for the gross view of her fat behind descending the pole
• on another occasion when Bridget attended a dinner party of smug married couples (including Mark with Natasha), she was the only single person invited; after being asked to confirm that she had broken up with her publishing chap, she was given unexpected advice by the married Cosmo (Mark Lingwood): "Never dip your nib in the office ink"; he also condescendingly urged her to get a man because "time's a-running out - tick-tock!"
• when Mark spoke with Bridget privately as she was leaving, he stated his delight that she had broken up with the detested Daniel; he claimed he didn't consider her an "idiot" at all, but then listed all of the "ridiculous" elements he didn't like about Bridget, such as being "an appallingly bad public speaker," and someone who often tended to blurt out whatever was in her head "without much consideration of the consequences"; but then he repeated his "inarticulate" claim that he liked her alot: "In fact, perhaps, despite appearances, I like you very much"; she retorted back: "Ah, apart from the smoking and the drinking, and the vulgar mother and the verbal diarrhea," but he interrupted and again affirmed that he liked her: "I like you very much just as you are"; disbelieving, Bridget told her friends: "I hate him"
• Bridget prepared the food over a four hour period at her house to celebrate her birthday with friends at a multi-course dinner party: ("A feast of blue soup, omelet, and marmalade"); before the other guests arrived, Mark appeared and Bridget asked him: "Did I really run round your lawn naked?" and he remembered: "Oh, yes. You were four, and I was eight" - something she considered: "quite pervy really"; he volunteered to help prepare the meal and they became better acquainted; during dinner, one of Bridget's friends asked: "Mark, why did your wife leave you?" - but he didn't answer
• things took a bad turn when a drunken Daniel arrived, pulled Bridget aside, and tried to win Bridget back: "I can't stop thinking about you, and thinking what a f--king idiot I've been...I'm a terrible disaster with a posh voice and a bad character. You're the only one who can save me, Bridge"; he explained how Lara had dumped him - "She realized that I hadn't got over you. I know you're thinking, it's just a sex thing, but I promise you, whenever I see that skimpy little skirt on TV, I just close my eyes and listen to all the intelligent things you've said"
• the two rivals Mark and Daniel challenged each other to a brutal fist-fight out that was fought in the street, inside a Greek restaurant, and then outside again; from the sidelines, Bridget wasn't clear who to support, especially when one male friend noted that Mark "shagged Daniel's fiancée and left him broken hearted"
• Mark left after punching Daniel one final time to the ground, and as he was leaving, he was shocked when Bridget chastised him: ("You're just as bad as the rest of them"); Daniel then appealed to her to take him back: "Come on. We belong together, Jones, me, you, poor little skirt. If I can't make it with you, then I can't make it with anyone"; she rejected his rude and insulting offer: ("That's not a good enough offer for me. I'm not willing to gamble my whole life on someone, who's well, not quite sure. It's like you said. I'm still looking for something more extraordinary than that")
• shortly later just before the Darcys' ruby wedding party, Bridget's mother off-handedly asserted that Daniel was found on Christmas Eve with Mark's Japanese wife "in a most unorthodox position, stark naked, a tit like rabbits"
• at the party, Bridget approached Mark to confirm why he and Daniel had a falling-out during their university days. Daniel had lied by always claiming that Mark had run off with his fiancee and left him broken-hearted. She apologized for despising Mark for the wrong reasons, and Mark told her that the truth was reversed: (Mark: "No, it was the other way around. It was my wife, my heart"); it now made sense to Bridget why the two men had always been engaged in a strange rivalry and why Mark "beat him to a pulp: ("That's why you always acted so strangely around him and beat him to a pulp, quite rightly. Well done")
• Bridget then told Mark how she truly felt about him and his sideburns: "You once said you liked me just as I am and I just wanted to say likewise. I mean there are stupid things your mum buys you, tonight's another classic. You're haughty, and you always say the wrong thing in every situation and I seriously believe that you should rethink the length of your sideburns. But, you're a nice man and I like you. If you wanted to pop by some time that might be nice, more than nice"
• by now, however, the relationship between Bridget and Mark appeared to be over and he was preparing to be engaged to Natasha, his "brilliant partner-in-law" and they had both taken jobs in New York at Abbott and Abbott; during the ruby wedding party, Mark's father toasted their engagement to the tune of "Here Comes the Bride"; Bridget interrupted with a halting plea for Mark to not leave England: "No, No! It's just that it's such a terrible pity for England to lose such a great legal brain...For the people of England, like me and you, to lose one of our top people. Uh, just top person, really...Well, better dash. I've got another party to go to. It's single people. Mainly poofs. Bye"; the tune of Gabrielle's "Out of Reach" played
• in the film's conclusion as Gabrielle's "Out of Reach" played, Bridget was surprised by her three friends with a planned weekend trip to Paris, to get her to forget about Mark (considered "the most dreadful cold fish"); the friends asked: "Has he ever actually stuck his f--king tongue down your f--king throat?", she confirmed that he hadn't; but then Mark suddenly appeared behind Bridget outside her flat, complimenting her for her earlier speech: "I just wanted to know if you were available for bar mitzvahs and christenings as well as ruby weddings. Excellent speech"; he informed her that he wasn't going to reside in America, and had returned home unexpectedly because he had forgotten something - he had come to kiss Bridget goodbye; she was utterly taken aback by his straight-forward request
• Bridget hurriedly dismissed her friends and invited Mark into her upstairs apartment; she told him: "Keep yourself busy, read something" while she was changing her clothes in her bedroom, and promised: "I'll be right with you." She expectantly told herself: "Definitely an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers." As she put on sexier underwear, he happened to scan through her diary and glimpsed a series of insults that she had written about him. He was dismayed by her critical assessment of him - that he was boring and dull: "Mum was really scraping the barrel, with Mark Darcy. He acts like he's got a giant gherkin thrust up his backside...But let's face it. Mark Darcy is rude, he's unpleasant, he's DULL - no wonder his clever wife left him. I hate him. I HATE HIM!"
• when Bridget returned, she saw that he had abruptly departed into the snowy night and didn't respond to her calls out to him; she realized he had read her negative words about him and began swearing: "Oh, s--t. Double s--t. Bollocks!"; realizing why he had left and to prevent him from leaving for the last time, she ran after him into the snowy street, wearing only running shoes, a purple lingerie top, an ill-fitting beige sweater and leopard-striped panties; at first, she couldn't locate him, but fortunately, he reappeared; she caught up to him in the street as he left a store, when she told him that her diary was foolish: "I am so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. Well, I meant it, but I was so stupid that I didn't mean what I meant. For Christ's sakes. It's only a diary. Everyone knows diaries are just full of crap"; during her ranting, he was silent, but then he replied: "I know that. I was just buying you a new one (in order) to make a new start, perhaps."
• he revealed a new diary from his coat pocket, bought for her to begin a new diary; she embraced him as they hungrily kissed, while passers-by watched in amusement on the street corner; to the tune of Van Morrison's "Someone Like You" and in the midst of a series of kisses during snow flurries, she pondered: "Wait a minute. Nice boys don't kiss like that"; he responded: "Oh yes they f--kin' do!" (and he wrapped her up in his coat)