Bridget Jones's Diary

In adapting Helen Fielding's hugely popular novel to the big screen, rookie director Sharon Maguire doesn't break any new ground. Mostly disposing with the diary format of the book and focusing more on Bridget's two-man troubles than her interactions with friends or any other self-improvement measures, BJ'sD looks on the surface like just about any other romantic comedy, albeit one refreshingly free of felonious stalking behavior. So why does it work so much better than most other movies of the genre? Crack screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, the BBC's sublime Blackadder) has a lot to do with the film's success; his sharp dialogue keeps things percolating, even through several unlikely plot twists. But here it is the leads who carry the movie: Renée Zellweger plays the plucky Bridget with commendable sensitivity, seeming hopeful and rather touchingly insecure but never shrill, while Hugh Grant is typically memorable playing a slightly more caddish variation on the Dashing Fop character he's perfected. Funny, charming and ever so delightfully British, BJ'sD succeeds in every respect that the similarly themed Someone Like You failed. Keep a lookout for the most inexplicable cameo ever from a fatwah recipient.