Bridget Jones’s Diary

Single thirtysomething British career woman (Renee Zellweger) keeps a diary as she sorts Mr. Right from Mr. Wrong and tries to bolster her sagging self-esteem. This rather mundane romantic comedy trips over several unconvincing plot points as she dates a lecher of a boss (Hugh Grant) and a starchy human rights attorney (Colin Firth). Zellweger added 20 pounds to her lithe Texan frame and replaced her normal drawl with a competent English accent to play the title role in this romantic comedy. Her performance is more impressive than the movie itself, which provides a few laughs but failed to make me care on which loves-me, loves-me-not petal this film ends. Directed by Sharon Maguire and based on journalist Helen Fielding’s popular 1996 British novel that began—like TV’s Sex and the City—as a newspaper column.