Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

The sequel to 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (from Helen Fielding’s sequel to her own novel) picks up about where the original left off, with the slightly overweight, mildly neurotic Bridget (Renée Zellweger) embarking on a “serious” relationship with lawyer Darcy (Colin Firth) and grappling with alternate feelings of jealousy, inferiority and indignation—and tempted again by the charming cad Cleaver (Hugh Grant). The sequel is amiable, aimless and largely superfluous, telling the original story over again (and throwing in a bonus trip to Thailand halfway through), but it’s redeemed by Zellweger’s comic charm and some fairly clever dialogue (by Fielding, Andrew Davies, Adam Brooks and Richard Curtis). Beeban Kidron’s direction doesn’t smooth out the episodic bumps, but at least she keeps things moving.