Review of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) by Gareth R — 16 Jan 2009

Most romantic comedies end with two characters getting together and, we presume, living Happily Ever After. What happens next? Unfortunately, the answer is perfectly obvious: either they stay happy or things get worse. They can't do the former because there's no story there, but doing the latter means ruining what the first film was all about. You could do both, but isn't that basically what the first film was about? And that's the problem with Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason. All it can think of to do with Bridget and Mark is break them up and get them back together again. What's the point spending the whole second film waiting to reach the first film's conclusion? (Shrek 2, another post-Happily Ever After movie, also enjoys this pointless repetition.).

Still, despite a lot of shoddy plotting, The Edge Of Reason does come up with some very good reasons why Bridget and Mark shouldn't stick together. (Even though the actual break-up is unconvincing and contrived.) Namely, they're too different and Mark's too boring. (Seriously, why does Colin Firth so often play dull, mumbling rich people?) They patch things up at the end, of course, but the damage is already done. This is obviously never going to work, despite what the (apparently over-idealistic) first film thought, and whatever happens here we know they'll just break up again. Thanks, sequel!

There's no plot to speak of, except for the random and contrived happenings that ultimately cause Bridget to leave Mark and, for various silly reasons, wind up in jail in Thailand. (But this is a Bridget Jones film, so jail is apparently a complete hoot, where fellow prisoners sing Madonna songs and offer to rent Bridget's bra for a day rather than, for instance, stabbing her.) The return of Daniel Cleaver is almost entirely pointless, and that's not the only sequence here to fit that description. The one thing that actually happens here - Bridget leaving Mark - doesn't have anywhere near enough impact because Mark's barely involved, and sits out far too much of the second half. A subplot involving Mark's maybe-romance with co-worker Rebecca is fatally undernourished, eventually leading to an irritatingly unsubstantiated "twist" that leaves a bunch of questions still unanswered. Considering much of Bridget's neuroses hang on what's going on here, we definitely needed to see more of it. But the film is, of course, much more interested in pratfalls and slapstick, particularly if it looks and sounds like stuff from the first film.

Fortunately, there are enough comic touches to keep you from getting too bored or annoyed. Hugh Grant is back, and still very funny as sleazy Daniel Cleaver. Much of the dialogue is amusing, as are some of Bridget's observations in her diary. (The diary once again plays too minor a part to be worth sticking in the title.) But director Beeban Kidron is constantly trying to hit the same physical comedy notes as the first film, forever showing us Bridget's (apparently) large bottom and chucking Colin Firth underwater. It often feels like a desperately underwhelming photocopy of the first film.

That's about the size of it, overall. A quite daring idea, following the characters after they walked off into the sunset, but this film just can't come up with a solid enough reason to exist. Since it's so keen to remind you of Bridget Jones's Diary, you might as well just watch that film again.