The longer the series is dragged out, the more it dilutes the brilliance of the original, and a character who was loved for being 'just as she is'Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones in ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’. Emily Bootle writes: ‘Once upon a time, she made us – but now we’re remaking her’.
With a stupid , posh , quotable script co-written by the original novel’s author Helen Fielding,and Andrew Davies, the 2001 movie is inarguably my favourite ever – the one I will return to in times of joy, sorrow, and everything in between.was due to start filming this spring, my first thought was: oh, dear God, please no more. Bridget made so many of us who we are – and that means not only that we don’t want her to change, but that her shenanigans are no longer revolutionary.
When the original was released, much was made of the fact that Zellweger put on a token amount of weight for the role; in this, she remained stick thin. Daniel Cleaver is dead, Bridget is “still single”, but flying high in her career, a trait that, though it appeals to a certain subsection of corporate feminists, doesn’t become the woman who is universally beloved because she “waltzes in in a sexy see-through top and fannies about with the press releases”.
In an age where you’re not allowed to smoke inside, or where it’s not only fantastical but laughable that a publishing assistant should live in a flat on their own next to Borough Market, where waxing your bikini line at home with Veet strips is no longer cutting edge, where a character can’t say she is “a little bit fat” because everything must send a message rather than simply reflect the circumstances it’s created in, Bridget Jones can’t have the same impact.