Review of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) by Eric H — 23 Mar 2015

Here's a movie by committee if ever there was one. Let's get in all the gags that made the first film such a success. And let's not worry about all the great new ideas in the second book, because this is Hollywood, and Hollywood these days is about making money as easily as possible without troubling the old brains of the punters or getting in good writers for the screenplay.

The worst part of this dreary film is that is keeps self-referencing the first film, so not only do we traverse the same gags, we are told about it. And the cast is superb, as ever. All wasted. Perhaps there will be a sequel to this sequel.

If so, I wonder if they could ask themselves very carefully what is necessary to keep the fire burning when the romantic narrative has already run its course. It's a tricky question, because nothing is more potent that the romantic interest, and nothing is harder to rekindle when a sequel is made, unless there's intelligence behind the writing, which there wasn't in Bridget Jones 2.