Film Analysis: Bridget Jones

Bridget Jones’s Diary is a romantic comedy based on a novel by Helen Fielding. This movie follows Bridget (Renee Zellweger), a thirty-two year old British woman who has a fondness for alcoholic binges, smoking, and an inability to control her weight. After a drinking binge alone in her apartment during the holidays Bridget decides it's time to take control of her life, and start keeping a diary. The diary she thought would help her take control of her thoughts and life becomes a hilarious chronicle of her adventures.

In the first act of Bridget Jones’s Diary we are introduced to Bridget and her old fashioned parents, Pam and Colin. Bridget is attending their annual New Years dinner. Like always, Pam tries to set Bridget up with some dull middle-aged man. This time however, she is introduced to a handsome human-rights lawyer named Mark Darcy. At first she is interested but she takes against him later when she overhears him belittle her. After this we see Bridget alone in her apartment and very drunk. During this time she decides that she will not allow herself to be alone next New Years Eve. To help her achieve this goal she makes resolutions to reduce her intake of alcohol and cigarettes, and loose twenty pounds. She also vows to

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She discovers a naked woman in Daniel's apartment and breaks up with him.

Now, Bridget is on the verge of revealing her feelings for Mark when it is announced he is getting engaged and moving to New York. The relationship between the parts of the paradigm is what holds the story in place and makes it a good movie. Bridget runs into Mark at a number of social occasions, and continues to disliking him, a fact she reveals in her diary in which she records her daily weight, cigarette and alcohol consumption. On top of that her mother leaves her father for a shopping-channel presenter.

With a definite set up, plot point one, confrontation, plot point two, and resolution, Bridget Jones’s Diary follows Syd Field’s paradigm. After being snubbed by Mark, Daniel begins to take notice to Bridget and her tiny skirt. Bridget presents an item about a political refugee's trial, and scores a scoop when Mark, the refugee's lawyer, grants her an exclusive interview. Then Bridget discovers that it was actually Daniel who stole Mark's wife years before. After another depressive drinking binge, Bridget, for a second time, tries to turn her life around.

Act three starts around Christmas time. The evening of that dinner party is spoiled by the arrival of Daniel who has come to attempt a reconciliation with Bridget. The two Englishmen fight clumsily in the street. During their first date Daniel reveals that he and Mark attended college together, during which time Mark had an affair with his fiancée.

Approximate Word count = 827
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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