Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)
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| Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Beeban Kidron |
| Produced by | Tim Bevan Jonathan Cavendish Eric Fellner |
| Written by | Helen Fielding Andrew Davies Richard Curtis |
| Starring | Renée Zellweger Hugh Grant Colin Firth Gemma Jones Jim Broadbent |
| Music by | Harry Gregson-Williams |
| Cinematography | Adrian Biddle |
| Editing by | Greg Hayden |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures Studio Canal Working Title |
| Release date(s) | November 16, 2004 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English German |
| Budget | $70 million |
| Gross revenue | $262,520,724 |
| Preceded by | Bridget Jones's Diary |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is a 2004 romantic comedy 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.
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[edit] Plot
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The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
The movie begins shortly before Bridget's mother's infamous Turkey Curry Buffet. As she and Mark Darcy are now an item, Bridget is ecstatic about her relationship with her perfect boyfriend, and frequently reminds her co-workers that he is a human rights lawyer. 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 sky dive 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, her boss is also watching Daniel Cleaver's television show, "The Smooth Guide," a travel guide.
After a run-in with a "frenemy", Bridget's confidence in her relationship is shattered — a colleague of Mark's, Rebecca Gilles (Jacinda Barrett), is young, tall, self-confident, and effortlessly gorgeous. Hearing that he is meeting Rebecca after postponing dinner with herself, Bridget rushes over to Mark's apartment and peers through his door and skylight to find Rebecca and Mark getting comfortable. She storms into the house, and finds that Mark's colleagues are having a meeting in his living room. She is afraid of Mark ending the relationship with her for being so paranoid, but Mark showers her with affection and takes her home.
In the morning, Bridget gets dressed under her bedsheets so Mark doesn't see her "wobbly bits." However, he says he has always had "a high regard" for her wobbly bits, giving her confidence. 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 rumour that she couldn't even identify Germany on a map.
In the meantime, Bridget is excited about attending the "Law Council Dinner". (In reality, there is no such organisation, and it appears to be a fictional amalgamation of the Law Society and the Bar Council). She arrives late, with a red face from over-applying 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 an after dinner quiz, the different tables compete to answer law-related questions. Finally, Bridget is the only one who answers a series of entertainment questions, and gets them right. However, she answers the tie-breaker incorrectly (a crushing blow, since it was about Madonna, and her answer was the less-well-known correct answer "Lucky Star", but Rebecca gave the common wrong answer "Holiday") and her table loses to Rebecca's team.
Mark takes Bridget to his place where they angrily discuss her demeanour at the dinner. At her friends' insistence, she asks him if he is cheating on her. His answer is what her friends call a dead giveaway 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 to the Alps on a ski mini-break together, and she happily agrees. However, when they get to the lodge, she finds several of his colleagues 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 chemist's. 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 boarding school. 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 had 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. Since Shazzer can't 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 thinks 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 and 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 legal chambers. 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 room 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.
[edit] Cast
- Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones
- Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver
- Colin Firth as Mark Darcy
- Gemma Jones as Mrs. Jones
- Jim Broadbent as Mr. Jones
- Celia Imrie as Una Alconbury
- James Faulkner as Uncle Geoffrey
- Jacinda Barrett as Rebecca Giles
- Sally Phillips as Shazzer
- Shirley Henderson as Jude
- James Callis as Tom
- Jeremy Paxman as Himself
[edit] Links to the BBC TV serial Pride and Prejudice
- 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.
[edit] Trivia
- The poem that Daniel quotes from while passing Ko Panyi is the story of "Phra Aphai Mani" by Sunthorn Phu.
- "Ping pong" in relation to Daniel's alleged knowledge of Thailand is a reference to Ping pong show which is a popular sex themed show/act in Bangkok.
- The fight scene between Daniel and Mark was mostly not choreographed, instead, the actors were simply asked to fight each other any way they could.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Box Office
The film grossed USD$40,226,215 in the United States and USD$262,520,724 worldwide.[1]
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Track listing
| Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason | |||||
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| Soundtrack by Various artists | |||||
| Released | November 19, 2004 | ||||
| Genre | Mixed | ||||
| Label | Geffen Records | ||||
| Producer | Nick Angel | ||||
| Various artists chronology | |||||
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- Will Young - "Your Love Is King"
- Jamelia - "Stop"
- Kylie Minogue - "Can't Get You out of My Head"
- Joss Stone - "Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin' on Me?) Pt. 1"
- 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"
[edit] Musics sample
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"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" Originally performed by The Shirelles in the 1960s, This version performed by Amy Winehouse slows the tempo down and features a jazz arrangement. - Problems playing the files? See media help.
