Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a 2004 film directed by Beeban Kidron. It stars Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones, Colin Firth as Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver. It is the
sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary (2001).
There are significant differences in the story lines between the novel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and this film adaptation, and between the U.S.
and U.K. versions of the film, including an alternate ending.
Plot Summary
Whereas the last movie ended around Christmas time, this movie begins shortly before Bridget's mother's infamous Turkey Curry
Buffet. This time she and Mark Darcy are an item, equally fetching in their snowman jumpers. Bridget is ecstatic about all the
shagging with her perfect human right's lawyer boyfriend, and is the first to remind her co-workers. However, her reporting job
for Sit-Up Britain ends up being a degrading experience. (Her boss is keen on showing her large behind on camera.) For example,
she is sent to skydive on live television and ends up landing into a "vat of excrement" and he insists on a close-up of "the
porker." At the office, beside the television showing her "porker," her boss is also watching Daniel Cleaver's television show,
"The Smooth Guide," a travel guide.
After a run-in with a frienemy, Bridget's confidence in her relationship is shattered because she has been informed of a
certain beautiful law partner of Mark's. Rebecca Gilles (Jacinda Barrett) is everything that Bridget is not. She is younger,
taller, self-confident, and effortlessly gorgeous. Hearing that he is meeting Rebecca, after postponing dinner with her, Bridget
rushes over to Mark's apartment. There, peers through his door, and skylight to find Rebecca and Mark getting comfortable. She
storms into the house, and finds that all the law partners are having a meeting in his living room. She is afraid of being sacked
for being so paranoid, but Mark showers her with affection and takes her home.
In the morning, Bridget sneaks out of bed to get dressed under her bedsheets so Mark doesn't see her "wobbly bits." However,
he tells her to stop jumping around in the tent because he has always had "a high regard" for her wobbly bits. She casts away the
bedsheet and is confident in her appearance. However, when she gets to work, she meets her ex-boyfriend Daniel Cleaver (Hugh
Grant). She is offered a position as the "Smooth Guidess," to target the male demographic. (Daniel captures the female
demographic.) At first she refuses to work with Daniel, but he humiliates her by spreading a rumor that she couldn't even
identify Germany on a map.
In the meantime, she is excited about attending a gala, held by her boyfriend's law firm. She arrives late, with a red face
from over-applicating blush in the cab ride. She quickly wipes it off, but makes a social faux-pas by insulting Mark's
co-workers. Furthermore, she is distraught when she is seated far from Mark, and next to Mr. Benwick whose wife has just left
him. He goes on about how Mark and Rebecca are A-listers, and how he and Bridget are not. During a dinner party quiz, the
different tables compete to answer law related questions. Finally, Bridget is the only one who answers an entertainment question,
and gets it right. However, she answers the tie-breaker incorrectly (a crushing blow, since it was about Madonna, and since
Rebecca answered it correctly) and her table loses to Rebecca's team.
Mark takes Bridget to his place where they angrily discuss her demeanor at the gala. At her friends' insistance, she asks him
if he is cheating on her. However, he answers, what her friend's called a dead give-away of guilt: "I won't dignify that question
with an answer." Things get worse when Rebecca calls and leaves a message on Mark's machine. Bridget storms out and goes home.
She calls Mark and leaves a detailed message but is interrupted by Mark who is at the door. He apologizes, and says for the first
time, "I love you!" She forgives him, and lets him up to her flat.
Mark suggests that they go away on a ski mini-break together, and she happily agrees. However, when they get to the lodge, she
finds several of his law partners there, including Rebecca. This is made worse by the fact that Bridget cannot actually ski. She
tells Mark to go down the slope before her. She slowly inches down thinking of how they've been shagging non-stop for eight
weeks, when it occurs to her that, that can't be right. She begins sliding at a faster speed and finds her way to a drugstore.
Unable to speak the language, she mimes that she may or may not be pregnant.
At the hotel room, Mark comes in, angry that he had searched everywhere for her. He notices the pregnancy test, and they
discuss what would happen if they were pregnant. He is ecstatic at the idea, even though they have only been dating for 2 months.
However, they argue over whether their son will go to private school or be home schooled. After arguing adamantly about it, the
stick is negative. The next day, they meet their parents for brunch. When questions of marriage arise, Mark quickly says that
they have not been thinking about it at all. They go to his place again and she says that she cannot stay with him because, "It
feels like you're waiting to find someone in the VIP room who's- who's so fantastic, just the way she is, that you don't need to
fix her." When she asks if he wants to marry her, his silence leads her to believe that he doesn't love her. "You see, you can
never muster the strength, to fight for me." She decides to go with Daniel to Thailand to film "The Smooth Guide."
Bridget brings Shazzer along to Thailand for support. While Shazzer sits next to a handsome man, Jed, Bridget is stuck sitting
by an oversized man. To her surprise, Daniel has arranged for her to move up to first-class along with him. They begin their
flirtation again, and it seems that he is a changed man. Once in Thailand, Daniel visits the night life on camera, and Bridget
explores the culture. Meanwhile, Jed and Shazzer get closer. During a meal, they trick Bridget into eating magic mushrooms. At
first she is enraged, but is later found in the water enjoying the psychedelic effects.
Daniel takes her out to dinner, and tells her how wonderful she is. He convinces her to come up to his hotel room. She is
about to give him a second chance when there is a knock at the door. A prostitute enters, informing them that Daniel ordered her,
and had tipped her friend generously the night before. Bridget storms out.
Bridget and Shazzer pack frantically to catch their plane back to the U.K. Unable to fit a gift from Jed in her bag, Bridget
puts Shazzer's gift into her own bag. However at airport security, dogs start sniffing the suitcase. As Daniel watches
unsympathetically, Bridget is dragged away for possession of cocaine, which was stashed in the gift. With things looking bleak in
a Thai prison, she befriends the other women there. They discuss how terribly the men in their lives have treated them, and they
sing Madonna's "Like A Virgin" to pass the time.
Some time later, Mark Darcy arrives to tell Bridget that his superiors have sent him to put her release in motion. He shows
her a picture of Jed, to identify the man who gave Shazzer the hidden cocaine, but tricks her into saying that she spent the
night in Daniel Cleaver's hotel room. As she reaches out for his hand, he walks away and clearly states that he was just the
messenger.
In Britain, Mark finds Daniel at a museum, continuing his Smooth Guide filming. Continuing where they left off in the first
film, Mark confronts Daniel for not helping Bridget when she was arrested. They chase each other around a water fountain until
Mark drags them both in. Daniel says, "What are you gonna do now? Drown me in sixteen inches of water?" and Mark replies, "Yes,
certainly." Finally, Daniel says, "You know what, mate? If you are so obsessed with Bridget Jones, why don't you just marry her?"
pauses and ends with, "Cause then she'd definitely shag me." The fight resumes.
At Bridget's return, she is an international human rights celebrity. She is greeted by her parents who have been busy planning
their vow renewal ceremony. At home, she is surprised by her friends who inform her that Mark Darcy was the one who tracked down
Jed, forced him into custody in order to free her. Hopeful that he still loves her, she runs down to his house, but finds Rebecca
Gilles there. There, it is revealed that Rebecca does not love Mark, but loves Bridget instead. She kisses her, but Bridget turns
down her offer saying, she still likes men in general, Mark Darcy in particular. Benwick witnesses the kiss, and is rebuffed in
his A-lister, VIP list theory, at least in Bridget's case.
After many wardrobe changes, Bridget takes a cab to Mark's office. However, as soon as she gets out of the car, she is
splashed with water twice. She tells herself, appearances are not important, and runs to his office where she bursts in on an
international conference. Mark excuses himself and she asks him to take her back. He wants to say one thing, and she says he can,
as long as it's not "will you marry me?" However, IT IS! And she coaxes him into saying it anyway and she accepts. In the end,
her parents renew their vows, and she is engaged to Mark Darcy. Her mother throws her bouquet and she flies through the air to
catch it. Mark and Bridget walk off together.
- At one point in the film (where Bridget and Shazzer are at the Thai airport), Bridget indulges in a fantasy of Mark coming
out of water in a wet white shirt, just like Colin Firth did in the 1995
BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. Colin Firth plays Mark Darcy in the
Bridget Jones films.
- One of the more significant differences between the novel and the film is that the film makes no mention of Bridget's
fascination with the BBC television version of Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice and its star, Colin
Firth, whom Bridget meets (in the book) in Italy and who plays Mark Darcy in both Bridget Jones films.
Critical Reception
Although the film received a mixed critical reception, it was voted Evening
Standard Readers' Film of 2004, was in the shortlist for the Orange Film of the Year award at at 2005
BAFTAs and the second interpretation of Bridget
gained Renée Zellweger another Golden Globe Award nomination and the
People's Choice Awards as Favorite Leading Lady of 2005.
Cast
Box Office
The film is considered a massive success, grossing USD$40,226,215 in the United States and USD$262,520,724 worldwide.[1]
Soundtrack track listing
- Will Young - "Your Love Is King"
- Jamelia - "Stop"
- Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You out of
My Head"
- Joss Stone - "Super Duper Love"
- Mary J. Blige - "Sorry Seems to
Be the Hardest Word"
- Robbie Williams - "Misunderstood"
- Love Affair - "Everlasting Love" (NB:
Jamie Cullum's version appears on the CD)
- Barry White - "You're the
First, the Last, My Everything"
- Beyoncé featuring Jay Z - "Crazy in Love"
- Rufus Wainwright featuring Dido - "I Eat
Dinner"
- 10cc - "I'm Not in Love"
- Carly Simon - "Nobody Does It
Better"
- Primal Scream - "Loaded"
- The Darkness - "I Believe in a Thing
Called Love"
- Amy Winehouse - "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"
- Minnie Riperton - "Lovin' You"
- Aretha Franklin - "Think"
- Leona Naess - "Calling"
- Sting & Annie Lennox - "We'll Be Together"
- Harry Gregson-Williams - "Bridget's Theme"
References
External links
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