Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

At the end of the movie, we see the words The End crossed out with the words The Beginning. Since I know three additional Bridget Jones movies have now been made, I take that to mean that they had at least planned for one additional Bridget Jones film, if not a full franchise. (I have no current plan to watch the sequels, but I have read the IMDb summaries, and so I know, in summary, how the following years of Jones's life have gone. Usually, I wouldn't count that against the original movie, but I feel like it's difficult with this one, as this movie is a Romance with a Romantic ending, and yet, I know "the rest of the story.")

A simple love triangle. There's Daniel (Hugh Grant), a womanizing prick she knows better than to get involved with... but once he shows the least bit of interest in her, she immediately gets involved with him.

Then there's Mark (Colin Firth). He's like a real man, the one she was "destined" to be with, but she can't help but see him as "safe and boring." And more than that, it's not even immediately clear that he likes her (if he did, what's taken him so long to act upon it?). And, of course, he has a girlfriend.

Over the course of the movie, we work through the required romantic problems and obstacles. Daniel fades. Comes back. Fades. Mark rises, falls, rises. Then at the very end, he happens to find her open diary, reads a few entries that prominently feature him. She's writing in moments of being the most vulnerable and honest. It's a diary after all, and it's meant to be a record of her immediate thoughts... She's written that she absolutely hates him. But this is when she thought he had left to go live in America with another woman, too...

While it looks like Mark storms off never to be seen again, he actually has a purpose when he walks out of Bridget's apartment. She chases after him, only to catch up with him, and then she finds out that he left... to buy her a new diary, so that they could have a new start. It's a cute and wholesome ending, and at this point, it feels like the "happily ever after" ending. And it would be, except it's not the ending. It's the beginning, and future sequels will eventually let us decide if Bridget had the life of a Disney Princess or not.

Another one of those movies that I don't love and don't hate... just kind of feel in the middle about.

Rating: 3/5 stars

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