5 things that happen when you watch ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ for the first time
By Reed Gaudens
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 05: Renee Zellweger arrives for the World premiere of ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ at Odeon Leicester Square on September 5, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ is a romantic comedy classic, but watching it for the first time with a modern lens reveals the film to be surprisingly problematic.
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I have confession to make: Prior to this week, I had never seen the romantic comedy classic Bridget Jones’s Diary. As a fan and an informal scholar of the genre, I failed to experience one of the seemingly most important titles in the rom-com canon. Watching it for the first time, I harbored zero nostalgic attachments to Renée Zellweger’s iconic character and her unlucky winding road to love. Perhaps that’s what I needed.
Instead of walking away from the viewing experience with a brand new favorite romantic comedy or understanding why audiences have adored the film franchise for just south of two decades, I uncovered multiple grievances with Bridget Jones’s Diary. I expected to cheer on Bridget Jones like I always have with Elle Woods, but she drove me mad in the best way possible. The “wanton sex goddess” needed to shuffle the deck for better suitors and make a bold, empowering statement. But the film falls ever so short from its greatest feminist potential. Right on the edge of reason, here are the five stages of watching Bridget Jones’s Diary for the first time.
1. You cringe at all the shaming.
Beginning to end, Bridget endures tireless shaming from everyone around her, thrusting her into a damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t dilemma. She’s body shamed for not being a frail twig. She’s slut shamed for the hardly scandalous clothing she chooses to wear. She’s single shamed for being—gasp!—32 and unmarried. She’s shamed for being real. Goodness gracious, can’t a girl live her life in peace?
The worst part about the shaming in Bridget Jones’s Diary is Bridget’s laissez-faire reaction. Unfortunately, having unnecessary scrutiny flung in her general direction has become so ingrained as the norm that she takes it all in with spirited sarcasm. Isn’t that awful? Rather than realize it’s a reflection of the backwards views of everyone else, she metabolizes the judgment as a means to change for her critics. Be yourself, Bridget, and damn them all!
2. You lose your mind over the normalization of sexual harassment.
Surely, I can’t be the only Bridget Jones’s Diary viewer to find fault in the film’s shrug-off of sexual harassment, right? Bridget’s pervy co-worker ogles her, even when she’s practically wearing a turtleneck sweater. Not to mention, her relationship with Daniel (Hugh Grant) begins with a string of emails that would land him in boiling water with human resources. He then proceeds his pursuit with an unauthorized elevator butt grab (see above). None of this is charming behavior. It’s sexual harassment. Seriously, what gives?
3. You scream at her acceptance of it.
The film appears to live under the regrettably realistic mindset that women are to simply live with the unwelcome advances from men. It’s going to happen, and there’s little that can be done to put an end to it. But that’s false messaging, and it’s dangerous. Bridget Jones’s Diary should have taken more explicit care in expressing that sexual harassment isn’t something women should become accustomed to, and that it certainly shouldn’t be mistaken as passable seduction. Bridget does, however, discover the agency to remove herself from instances of blatant disrespect.
4. You wonder when she fell for either man.
It’s a common occurrence in romantic stories that you can blink and miss the moment the central couple falls in love. Often, love happens in a split second in films and television instead of being a slow burning process. Such is life with Bridget Jones as she seemingly falls in love with Daniel and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) without so much as a dinner date.
Before long, she’s pining for Daniel’s affection and turning her hatred for Mark into what would be a misallocation of emotions in real life. As a first time viewer along for the Bridget Jones journey, I didn’t understand what she saw in Mark Darcy, a stoic and spineless lawyer, or, more pressingly, in Daniel. We’ll have to check her diary, but where was the connection?
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5. You ponder how love solves all of her problems forever.
Are we to believe that the totality of who Bridget Jones is exists in her ability to settle down with a man? To find the “Mr. Right” who will flutter his eyelashes at her eccentricities? To push aside any actual self-improvement in place of a handsome, if not incredibly basic, white dude with a fat bank account? Why does falling in love with the societal embodiment of the “perfect” man solve her issues? Answer: It doesn’t.
Of course, to critique a rom-com for its culmination of grand romance is to poke holes in the very fabric of its being. We know love will bloom and we’ll have to suspend our disbelief to some extent. But most romantic comedies feature the female lead coming to a personal catharsis. Bridget Jones didn’t accept herself for who she is so much as she was told a man could love her for who she is. Love can’t cure her problems with herself—only she can do that.
Bridget Jones’s Diary is available to stream on Netflix.