IT’S MONDAY MORNING. BRIDGET HAS WOKEN UP WITH A HEADACHE, A HANGOVER AND HER BOSS.

There was a lot of pressure on the filmmakers to turn Helen Fielding’s bestseller, about a 32-year-old Londoner who senses the time has come to choose between Mr. Right and Mr. Wrong, into cinematic gold. Fortunately, present in the writing room was Richard Curtis who brings his style to the formula; the funny lines, the romantic ingredients… it all looks so effortless.

Audiences fell in love with a person like Bridget who is so human in an embarrassing way – in her own bumbling way, under pressure, she’s just trying to make the best of her life.

American Renée Zellweger is perfect and Hugh Grant has fun as a lovable bastard; his ”girl fight” with Colin Firth is highly memorable.

2001-U.S.-U.K.-France. 94 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Sharon Maguire. Screenplay: Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis. Novel: Helen Fielding. Cast: Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones), Hugh Grant (Daniel Cleaver), Colin Firth (Mark Darcy), Gemma Jones, Celia Imrie, Jim Broadbent, Sally Phillips… Honor Blackman. Cameos: Salman Rushdie, Jeffrey Archer. 

Trivia: Helena Bonham Carter, Toni Collette and Rachel Weisz were considered for the lead. Davies wrote the TV version of Austen’s ”Pride and Prejudice”, where Firth played Mr. Darcy. Also, Fielding originally had Firth in mind when she wrote the character of Mark Darcy. Followed by three sequels, starting with Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). 

Last word: “After Renée came abroad, accent-wise she had a very brief Princess Margaret phase, which was alarming! She was soon through that, and then there was a brief phase where Renée sounded very slight as though she… had a stroke! You know, everything was rather slur-r-red. But then Renée knocked that on the head. And two weeks before we started shooting, her accent came perfectly into focus. It’s the best American doing English that I’ve ever heard in my life. And not once did she stop speaking with that accent, until the wrap party. When suddenly this weird… Texan appeared. I wanted to call security, I didn’t know who the […] she was!” (Grant, Cinema.com)