Bridget Jones - watched it last night, erm it’s aged a bit!

[Noeuf]

Gosh watched with dd as I was up late and it came on. Funny how I remembered it and how we’ve moved on now.
The emails about her skirt - funny/flirty then and now massively inappropriate
Darcy ‘negging’ her - dd couldn’t see why he was meant to be the one we all wanted
Fighting in the street! And no comeback for him as a human rights barrister
91/2 stone - and she was fat??!!! I weigh more than that and don’t think I’m comment worthy!
Just so interesting to see how my views have changed really.

[SecondRateFrog]

I remember the actress moaning about how hard she had to work to pile on so much weight to play the part.

[Tal45]

I started reading the book and thought it was self obsessed drivel (and I normally always prefer the book) admittedly though I couldn't get very far with it. Reese Witherspoon did an amazing job of making the character likeable though IMO and not seem totally shallow and self absorbed.

[Dontforgetyourbrolly]

Nothing to do with Bridget or Pretty Woman but thinking along similar lines this morning...a job I started in 2005. The area manager would visit offices and hug everyone in a massive bear hug ( an industry that's 99% female and he was male ). I hated it because I did not know him at all and I'm not tactile. I asked my manager to politely bring it up that I don't want to participate I these hugs and forever more until the area leader left he made a huge deal " oh there's Brolly better not hug her!"
Would not get away with any of that now and quite rightly!

[Gwenhwyfar]

@amazeandastonish

The point is that she thought she was fat

In the second film however, they took it too far - gold dress too small for her so it switched from her thinking she's fat to us thinking she's fat and I didn't like that very much.

As for Daniel's behaviour - she fancies him, she doesn't tell him to f*ck off (but she wakes up to him when he cheats on her) She walks in wearing an inappropriate outfit to get his attention - this is made obvious to us - and she gets that attention. Even perpetua raises her eyes at the outfit.

OP is massively missing the point

I don't remember her calling herself 'fat' in the book. She wanted to lose weight, just as she wanted to stop smoking, but it was more about getting from medium to slim so she'd look great in the tiny skirt.

[Tal45]

@MareofBeasttown

Agree with you, OP. A lot of romcoms of the time have aged terribly. No one would identify with Julia Roberts' desperation to get married in My Best Friend's Wedding now.

I love Rupert Everett in that though - when they all break into I say a little prayer is just brilliant IMO :-D

[MrsRobbieHart]

BJ was always awful. That hasn’t changed.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"
So she is a healthy BMI but not super skinny."

Yes, so as I've mentioned probably something like a 90s size 12 who would like to be a size 10.

[Shallwegoforawalk]

@Tal45

I started reading the book and thought it was self obsessed drivel (and I normally always prefer the book) admittedly though I couldn't get very far with it. Reese Witherspoon did an amazing job of making the character likeable though IMO and not seem totally shallow and self absorbed.

Renee Zellweger not Reece?

[FlouncingBabooshka]

Definitely don’t think we were meant to be horrified at the street fighting etc.

I agree - of course we weren’t meant to be horrified. It’s a comedy scene in a comedy film and, apart from the very realistic way they circle round each other, ineffectually swinging and kicking and failing to make contact, (very much how I imagine a fight between those two would have actually been like) it’s pure slapstick - for example being hit on the head with a dustbin lid and crashing through a plate glass window without any severe injuries being sustained. I can’t imagine a time will come when I don’t find Darcy apologising to diners mid fight and the pair of them politely stopping to join in with singing Happy Birthday funny. The fact we aren’t meant to find this fight horrifying doesn’t mean real fighting and real vandalism were acceptable at the time because they absolutely were not.


Daniel Cleaver was meant to be a horrible creep at the time - as the reader you were supposed to read between the lines and writhe in horror and fascination at what she was doing. It's the unreliable narrator trick and can be very funny..

This is true. I wonder if it’s harder to spot this if you haven’t read the book first? I also agree with the pp who pointed out it’s easier to understand what Helen Fielding was doing with Darcy if you’ve read Pride and Prejudice.

It was possible - just - to own a flat in places like shepherds Bush, inner south London, inner East London etc on a low 'professional' wage at that point..

At the time I was doing a similar level job in the same industry as Bridget. There’s no way she could have afforded that flat based on what her salary would have been but there’s any number of reasons someone like her could have had the funds. She’s from a fairly well to do family. I know a few people like her who inherited substantial sums from grandparents. It often makes no sense when you try to work out how how fictional characters in films and television afford to live where they do. It’s just make believe and for some reason I find more acceptable in a frothy rom com than I do in a gritty drama.

The emails about the skirt etc would have been inappropriate then as they would be now because they were written on work time and equipment but Bridget loved getting them. I can imagine if she were real she would look back now and cringe at the memory.

It’s of it’s time yes - most things are. There’s actually fair more in Friends that I now see as distasteful and inappropriate in a way that passed me by at the time. I do still think it’s a very funny programme.

[Hetty0]

The whole point was that she wasn’t fat, but thought she was.

[kurtney]

This is true. I wonder if it’s harder to spot this if you haven’t read the book first? I also agree with the pp who pointed out it’s easier to understand what Helen Fielding was doing with Darcy if you’ve read Pride and Prejudice

I think the line became blurred with Daniel Cleaver when they cast Hugh Grant who was far, far sexier than Colin Firth in the film. HG seemed to be enjoying himself immensely playing a cad for a change, whereas CF came across a bit dull. More people fancied HG than they did CF, including I suspect Helen Fielding, who (iirc) had Daniel Cleaver being the dad of Bridget's baby in one of the versions of the BJ's baby storylines.

[longtompot]

@WheelieBinPrincess

No the point is she THOUGHT she was fat but the viewer/reader is meant to know that she isn’t! That’s her hang up, we all think we are too fat at one stage or another don’t we?!

I agree. The book is much better than the film. It just didn't translate well. The whole point is it was her diary for venting. It wasn't about women her size being fat, it was how they felt, probably due to all the glossy mags with size zero models in them.
Plus, Bridget never looked like Renee in my mind when I read them.

[SummerOrAutumn]

On the inapproproate behaviour from bosses at work - I was around the same age as Bridget at about the same time and sexual harassment in the workplace was rife. Suggestive remarks, sly groping, patting of the bum in passing, all from older more senior bosses (solicitors in my case ).

[Bodule]

Im 51 so my experience was like bridget's. Dated losers and felt fat for decades before i copped on and realised i dont have to be married, i dont have to be magazine thin

I thought this was interesting because I'm 50 and my experience was nothing like Bridget Jones' at all. I was very picky about boyfriends (have only had three in total), and never thought I had to be married. I wasn't interested in my weight, either (though maybe because I'm generally small and eat sensibly, so there's not much to think about). I haven't seen any of the films, but used to read the column in the newspaper. Even then, it felt like a different universe from the one I inhabited.

[Lostandlittle]

Same for East is East

[Chipsinthewoods]

@Notonthestairs

I was always fascinated by Bridget's relationship with her mother. Her mum saying that Bridget & her Dad always made her feel silly and an outsider always got to me. I think it captures Lizzie & Mr Bennett's gang of 2 relationship very well. I loved the wedding at the end of the film - that shade of mauve!

Darcy is attractive because of how he contrasts with Daniel/Wickham.

Definitely this,

I always got the feeling that Bridget felt like an on-the-shelf, chubby failure because of the expectations put on her by her mother, who was slim for her age and married, but neurotic and unhappy. I don’t think all young women in the 90s would relate to this, but I think it is bound up in the class/keeping up with the joneses/social climbing thing (which reflects the character of Mrs Bennett in p&p). Throughout the 3 films (even though the whole paternity thing in the last one is dishonest and stupid) there is an element of Bridget unravelling this and becoming more assertive and proud of who she is (and her mum accepting it I suppose).

[Gwenhwyfar]

@SummerOrAutumn

On the inapproproate behaviour from bosses at work - I was around the same age as Bridget at about the same time and sexual harassment in the workplace was rife. Suggestive remarks, sly groping, patting of the bum in passing, all from older more senior bosses (solicitors in my case ).

Yes, but Bridget wasn't harassed. They were both flirting with each other. It was totally mutual.

[Noeuf]

I’ve read the columns
I’ve read the books
I’ve read P&P

I’m not missing any nuance or cultural references.
I’ve just watched an old film and been surprised at how much we’ve moved on. Maybe my experiences were unusual but at the time flirty behaviour from managers was a regular occurrence and the idea of reporting it (like now) wasn’t there. Even reciprocated I just wouldn’t do it now. I haven’t watched it for a while and in my head Darcy was a quiet, strong man - in the film hes petulant and rude. With no qualities that would make me pick him over Cleaver.

[Noeuf]

Mr TitsPervert - unwanted attention but they put up with it and just eye roll/ treat as a joke.
Anyway, it’s interesting to chat about.

[BoredZelda]

The emails about her skirt - funny/flirty then and now massively inappropriate

I can’t think there was ever a point where I thought a boss emailing a colleague about her skirt was ever funny/flirty!

91/2 stone - and she was fat??!!! I weigh more than that and don’t think I’m comment worthy!

Yep, I often wish I was as thin as back when I thought I was fat.

[Gwenhwyfar]

"I’m not missing any nuance or cultural references."

Well, you are if you think Darcy's aloofness is 'negging'. Do you think Mr Darcy in P&P is also negging?

" at the time flirty behaviour from managers was a regular occurrence and the idea of reporting it (like now) wasn’t there. Even reciprocated"

Well, exactly, Cleaver's flirting was reciprocated and welcomed by Bridget. What would she report him for?

"With no qualities that would make me pick him over Cleaver."

You missed when he flew to Asia to sort out the drugs issue? In the book he sorts out the scandal caused by Bridget's mother and in P&P by the sister who eloped. The point is that Darcy is a good man even if he sometimes lacks social charm.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

@TatianaBis people were thinner in the 80s (don’t know so much about the 1990s as I had left the U.K. by then). Most shops clothing ranges stopped at size 14, with some chain stores like M & S and BHS going up to a 16 or 18. If you were fatter than that, all you had was Evans, which was then known as Evans Outsize. I was 11 stone and 5’8” at the time and could just about get into a size 14. My daughter is the same weight and height as I was then and wears a size 10.

[tillytoodles1]

Her voice was so awful I switched off after a few minutes. Same with Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

I think the line became blurred with Daniel Cleaver when they cast Hugh Grant who was far, far sexier than Colin Firth in the film. HG seemed to be enjoying himself immensely playing a cad for a change, whereas CF came across a bit dull. More people fancied HG than they did CF, including I suspect Helen Fielding, who (iirc) had Daniel Cleaver being the dad of Bridget's baby in one of the versions of the BJ's baby storylines

The casting of CF was an in-joke of an in-joke. Helen Fielding was a friend of CF, so having BJ have a massive crush on Colin Firth, the real person, in the books was HF gently taking the mick out of CF - as well as being realistic, given how huge the adaption of P&P was at the time.

This in-joke was then taken a step further by having CF play Mr Darcy in the film. CF was a huge sex symbol post-P&P, whereas Hugh Grant was famous but also a bit of a joke, because of the Divine Brown scandal. The producers probably expected CF to be much more fanciable. However, as you say, Hugh Grant, who had up to then had mainly played wet English toffs, unexpectedly turned out to be much sexier playing a cad. Daniel Clever is more toxic in the books and, as the reader, you are waiting for Bridget to wake up to this. But, in the movie, HG is so charismatic that you can't really imagine her going for dullsville CG instead.

[Taoneusa]

I wonder what is today’s equivalent feel - good chick flick comedy.
Because even if you don’t like BJD nowadays, it was a feel good comfort film for a long time.

Do we have a current day equivalent ?