Book Review: Bridget Jones’s Diary

I know this is a movie that came out, oh gosh, way back when. But here’s the thing with this book… prior to starting Grad School, I bought this book, at a book sale at work for a quarter. It sat there waiting for me to read it for years. I’m talking years! Jump forward to grad school. I took a British Comedy class. I really had no choice. And this was actually on the book list that we had to read. Shhhh… I still never read it. I glossed over it enough to be able to talk in class about it, but I didn’t read it. I had this class the same semester that I had comps and this was the furthest thing from my mind. Oh, and watching the movie DOESN’T help unless you’re comparing how the book and the movie are DIFFERENT!

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

a 30-something Singleton who is certain she would have all the answers if she could:
a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

“123 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)…”

Bridget Jones’ Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget’s permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement — a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and — like millions of readers the world around — you’ll find yourself shouting, “Bridget Jones is me!”

Thoughts

Okay… Very seldom will you EVER seem me say that the movie was better than the book, but Oh. My. GOSH. the movie was WAY better than the book. 1st off, why are books better? Well, that’s obvious… you get to read a lot more about the details and imagine them versus someone else telling/showing you what you will see. But this book.

I really wanted to slap Bridget’s mom (mum). I get that she felt like she had been missing out on life being a mum/wife, but holy crap. In the movie the mum character is bad but in the book, there’s a whole new level of WOW. Not a good wow either. The fact that she left Bridget’s father for one guy, flirted with another, and then the father took her back. But then she was going to basically go upstairs and screw the one guy while in the house with the father. WTH? The father should have been running to that divorce lawyer’s office so fast. And the fact that she lost all her friend’s money and possibly their house for the guy. Oh, gosh. Yes, sorry that’s a spoiler if you didn’t read the book.

Now the difference between the book and the movie… the book is supposed to be like her diary. So obviously she can’t fill in the gaps that the movie is able to even though it is based on the book. But I’m going to use the word “based” very loosely.

Daniel Clever is in the book way more than the movie, although he’s one of the main characters in the movie. Mark Darcy on the other hand really isn’t in the book as much as the movie. I did find it ironic that they mention Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice and yet he plays one of the main characters in the movie. I liked that. Of course, I like Colin Firth as an actor. That’s beside the point. I’m not a fan of Daniel Clever. Not at all. Bridget can do better.

But poor Bridget. She thinks she’s fat at 120-130 pounds… but not only does she think that all of her friends refer to her that way also, especially Rebecca. Rebecca isn’t a character I remember in the movie… maybe there’s a reason. They say that Renee Zellweger had to gain weight to play Bridget Jones. If this is true… gosh, am I a huge friggin cow. I mean I might be but still… To say someone is fat at 130 pounds, especially being her friend and doing it behind her back. I think she needs new friends.

I seriously like the movie better. I’m not sure I could even struggle through the other two Bridget Jones books. I wasn’t a fan of the second movie. The third movie was okay, but I’m not sure I could read the third book without reading the second book. I just don’t think I could struggle through the second book.

So yeah.