| Bridget Jones's Diary | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Sharon Maguire |
| Screenplay by | |
| Based on | Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
| Edited by | Martin Walsh |
| Music by | Patrick Doyle |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 96 minutes[1] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $282 million[4] |
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 2001romantic comedy film directed bySharon Maguire from a screenplay byHelen Fielding,Andrew Davies, andRichard Curtis. It is based on the 1996novel of the same name by Fielding, which was itself a loose adaptation ofJane Austen'sPride and Prejudice. The film starsRenée Zellweger asBridget Jones, a 32-year-old British single woman who writes a diary, which focuses on the things she wishes to happen in her life. However, her life changes when two men vie for her affection, portrayed byColin Firth andHugh Grant.Jim Broadbent andGemma Jones appear in supporting roles.
Principal photography began in August 2000 and ended in November, and took place largely on location in London and thehome counties.
Bridget Jones's Diary premiered at theEmpire in London on 10 March 2001 and was released on 13 April simultaneously in the United Kingdom and in the United States. It grossed $282 million worldwide against a production budget of $25 million and received generally positive reviews from critics, who highlighted Zellweger's titular performance, which garnered her a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Actress at the74th Academy Awards. It has been hailed as part of theEnglish pop culture, with Bridget Jones being cited as a British cultural icon.
The success of the film spawned aBridget Jones film series, with three sequels being released,Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004),Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) andBridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025).
Bridget Jones is 32, single, engagingly imperfect, and worried about her weight. She works as a publicity assistant at a publishing company in London where her main focus is fantasising about her womanising boss, Daniel Cleaver.
At her parents' New Year party, Bridget is reintroduced to Mark Darcy, a childhood acquaintance and handsome barrister, the son of her parents' friends. Mark calls Bridget foolish and vulgar, and she thinks he is arrogant and rude. Overhearing Mark grumble to his mother about her attempt to set him up with "a verbally incontinent spinster who smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, and dresses like her mother", Bridget forms the New Year's resolution to turn her life around. She begins keeping a diary to chronicle her attempts to stop smoking, stop drinking, lose weight, and find her "Mr. Right".
Bridget and Daniel begin to flirt heavily at work, ahead of an important book launch, at which Bridget runs into Mark and his glamorous and haughty colleague Natasha. Bridget leaves with Daniel and they start dating. Daniel tells Bridget that he and Mark were formerly friends, but as Mark had sex with his fiancée, they now hate each other.
Bridget is invited to a family party, originally a "Tarts & Vicars" costume party, so she ties it into a mini-break weekend with Daniel. They spend the day before the party at a country inn where Mark and Natasha are also staying. The morning of the party, Daniel says he must return to London for work and leaves Bridget dressed as aPlayboy Bunny to endure the party alone.
When Bridget returns to London and drops in on Daniel, she discovers his American colleague, Lara, naked in his flat. She cuts ties with him and immediately searches for a new career. Bridget lands a new job in television, so rejects Daniel's pleas for her to stay.
Bridget attends a friend's long-standing dinner party, where she crosses paths with Mark and Natasha. He privately confesses to Bridget that, despite her faults, he likes her "just as you are". Some time later, he allows Bridget an exclusive TV interview in a landmark legal case which boosts her career and prompts her to see him differently.
Mark comes to Bridget's rescue when she vainly attempts to cook a sophisticated birthday party dinner and the two have a celebration with Bridget's friends. A drunken Daniel arrives to monopolise Bridget's attention which prompts Mark to leave before he returns and challenges Daniel to a fight in the street. When the fight ends, Bridget chides Mark and dismisses Daniel as well.
Bridget's mother, Pamela, having left Bridget's father Colin for an affair with a colleague, returns to the Jones family home. She off-handedly reveals that Mark and Daniel's falling-out resulted from Daniel (then Mark's best friend atCambridge University) having sex with Mark's wife which Mark walked in on, not the other way around.
At the Darcys'ruby wedding anniversary party the same day, Bridget confesses her feelings for Mark, only to learn that he and Natasha have accepted jobs in New York and seemingly on the verge of an engagement. Bridget interrupts the toast but fails to dissuade Mark from travelling to New York. Bridget's friends rally to repair her broken heart with a surprise trip to Paris, but as they are about to leave, Mark appears at Bridget's flat.
Just as they are about to kiss for the first time, Bridget rushes to her bedroom to change into sexier underwear. Mark notices her open diary, reads her earlier unflattering opinions of him, and leaves. Bridget realises what has happened and runs outside after him in the snow. Finding him outside a nearby shop, Bridget apologises for what she wrote and says "it's only a diary". Mark reveals he only left to buy her a new one, which he gives her, "to make a fresh start", and they kiss in the snow-covered street.
Salman Rushdie,Julian Barnes,Jeffrey Archer[5] andHonor Blackman havecameos in the film.[6]
Andrew Davies, screenwriter ofthe 1995 television adaptation ofPride and Prejudice, collaborated on the screenplays for the 2001 and 2004Bridget Jones films andCrispin Bonham-Carter, who played Mr. Bingley in that adaptation, appeared in a minor role. The self-referential in-joke between the projects convinced Colin Firth to accept the role of Mark Darcy,[7] as it gave him an opportunity to ridicule and liberate himself from hisPride and Prejudice character.[8]
Working Title Films acquired the film rights of the novel in 1997 before it became a best-seller.[9]
Actresses who were considered for the role of Bridget Jones wereHelena Bonham Carter,[10]Cate Blanchett,[10]Emily Watson,[11]Rachel Weisz (who was considered too beautiful for the role),[12] andCameron Diaz.[13]Toni Collette declined the role because she was on Broadway starring inThe Wild Party at the time.[14]Kate Winslet[10] was also considered, but, at 24, the producers decided she was too young.[citation needed]
Zellweger's casting in late May 2000 concluded a two-year search. ProducerEric Fellner explained that she "brings enormous character and conviction to the part".[15] DirectorSharon Maguire said of Zellweger, "I saw in Renee a gift few people have, that she was able to straddle comedy and emotion."[10] Zellweger worked on her accent with Barbara Berkery, who had helpedGwyneth Paltrow forShakespeare in Love.[10] She also gained 20 pounds (9 kg) for the part.[16] To prepare for the role, Zellweger worked at the producers' request at London book publishersPicador as a trainee in the publicity department.[9] Before the film was released, a considerable amount of controversy surrounded the casting of the American Zellweger as what some saw as a quintessentially British heroine.[17][18] However, her performance, including her south-eastern English accent, is widely considered to be of a high standard.[19][20][21]
In July 2000, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant were cast as the male leads.[22] The director of the film, Maguire, one of Fielding's friends, was reportedly the base for the character "Shazzer" (English slang for Sharon), as mentioned in the behind the scenes commentary on the DVD.[23] In the film, Shazzer is played bySally Phillips.
Principal photography began on 1 August 2000 and concluded on 5 November 2000. The crew spent six weeks shooting in and around London.[9] Locations used includedShad Thames where Bridget and Daniel have their first date, theRoyal Courts of Justice,St Pancras railway station andTower Bridge.[9] Scenes were filmed atStoke Park in Buckinghamshire where Bridget and Daniel ventured to for their mini-break.[24]Wrotham Park inHertfordshire served as the Darcys' home.[9]Stansted Airport doubled asJFK Airport in New York City, while Syon House in Brentford featured as the venue for the anniversary party. The crew filmed for four days atSnowshill inGloucestershire which featured as the home of Bridget Jones's family.[9][25] After six weeks of shooting on location, the crew moved toShepperton Studios inSurrey.[9]
The film's soundtrack was composed byPatrick Doyle. Thesoundtrack forBridget Jones's Diary was produced by Nick Angel and Kathy Nelson and features two previously unreleased songs that became hit singles, including "Out of Reach" byGabrielle and "It's Raining Men" byGeri Halliwell, the latter of which became Halliwell's fourth consecutive number-one hit single on theUK Singles Chart. Following the success of the first soundtrack, a second soundtrack was released, titledBridget Jones's Diary 2: More Music from the Motion Picture and Other V.G. Songs.
Bridget Jones's Diary grossed $71.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $210.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $282 million, against a production budget of $25 million.[4] The film made $10.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing third. Dropping just 5.7% in its second weekend, the film made $10.2 million and finished first the following weekend.[26]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 164 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though there was controversy over the choice of casting, Zellweger's Bridget Jones is a sympathetic, likable, funny character, giving this romantic comedy a lot of charm."[27]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[28] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[29]
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Much acclaim was given to Zellweger's performance, withPaul Clinton ofCNN writing that Zellweger "nails Jones's London accent while simultaneously delivering a performance bursting with power and brimming with heartfelt emotion".[30] Mark Adams ofThe Hollywood Reporter praised Zellweger's knack for physical comedy,[31] andThe Washington Post'sStephen Hunter said the film lets her "show both her frantic awkwardness and her tender decency".[32]The New York Times'sStephen Holden called the film "a delicious piece of candy whose amusing package is scrawled with bons mots distantly inspired by Jane Austen", and added "Ms. Zellweger accomplishes the small miracle of making Bridget both entirely endearing and utterly real. It is a performance so airy you barely sense the work that must have gone into it."[33] TheChicago Sun-Times'Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, describing it as "made against all odds into a funny and charming movie that understands the charm of the original, and preserves it".[34]The Guardian'sPeter Bradshaw commended Maguire for directing with "chutzpah and style".[35]
Lisa Schwarzbaum ofEntertainment Weekly wrote, "Hugh Grant is charming too, luxuriating in naughtiness, taking a holiday from his usual floppy, velvet romantic image as Bridget's caddish boss, Daniel Cleaver."[36][33][35][37] Hunter praised Firth, writing "He's the complete Darcy, and he never wavers. There's no sentimentality, no flirtation with the audience, no final moment of pandering to the niceness gods; he's a cold geek all the way through."[32]
Some critics said that in the book's adaptation to the screen, it loses "much of Fielding's irony, nuance and cynicism".[38][35] Clinton wrote, "While the writers have captured Fielding's sparkling rhythm with words, they've created a bit of havoc with the plotline."[30] Though she gave a positive review, Schwarzbaum opined, "The mess, though, where's the mess? The hysteria, the middle of the night jitters of loneliness? The mess of Bridget's life [in the book] has been tidied, neatened into little piles of mirth and gaiety...The movie never shows us anything about Bridget that's remotely in need of psychological or physical fixing."[36] Felicia Feaster ofCreative Loafing expressed that "Bridget's 'why can't I find a husband?' lament" becomes tiresome and "caters to women's lowest expectations and suggests that even the 'modern' 'liberated' woman is a Doris Day closet-case."[39] In contrast,Stephanie Zacharek ofSalon.com said the film is an improvement on the novel.[37]
In a 2021 retrospective piece for theNew Statesman, Johanna Thomas-Corr discussed the more outdated aspects of the film, but said that the central performances are what makes the movie timeless.[38]
In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 303.[40]
Bridget Jones's Diary was nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best British Film,[41] theGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy,[42] and theSatellite Award for Best Film – Musical or Comedy,[43] whileRichard Curtis,Andrew Davies, andHelen Fielding were nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[41] In 2008, theAmerican Film Institute included the film in itsAFI's 10 Top 10 "Nominated Romantic Comedy" listing.[44]
Renée Zellweger's performance was nominated for anAcademy Award,[45] theBAFTA Award,[41] theBroadcast Film Critics Association Award,[46] theEmpire Award,[47] theGolden Globe Award,[42] theScreen Actors Guild Award,[48] and theDallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award.[49] Colin Firth was nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role[50] and theSatellite Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy,[43] while Hugh Grant won theEvening Standard British Film Awards' Peter Sellers Award for Comedy[51] and was nominated for theSatellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy,[43] and theEuropean Film Award – Jameson People's Choice Award – Best Actor.[52]
In 2009, it was reported the film version was being adapted into amusical, set to be performed in London'sWest End, although no premiere date was set. British musicianLily Allen wrote the score and lyrics, andStephen Daldry, best known for his Tony award-winning work on the West End and Broadway productions ofBilly Elliot, was in talks to direct, joined by his co-workerPeter Darling, who was said to serve as choreographer. Workshops for the show began with television actress and star ofLegally Blonde,Sheridan Smith, in the title role.[58] To date, a full production of the musical has not been mounted.[59]
Zellweger's accent was a point of great discussion among those attending on opening night, many of whom admitted to trying to find flaws in her performance. Most agreed that at times her accent was too upper-class for her background.
Renee's plummy English accent became one of Bridget's best known characteristics in the films...
Zellweger brought the accent off, [Hugh] Grant now says, but 'there was a phase at the beginning when she was a little bit like Princess Margaret... But even the most brutal British journalists, who are kind of snooty, have seen screenings in London and have had to eat humble pie. She's impeccable.'
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