The Incredible Bridget Jones

I watched “The Incredibles” and “Bridget Jones” on the same day. And boy was it a blast! The new Disney-Pixar animated “The Incredibles” is a story about a family of retired superheroes who must spring out from government-imposed retirement to save the world once again from the evil threats of a fake superhero. Holly Hunter and Craig T. Nelson provide voices to Elastic Girl and Mr. Incredible respectively. The animation is on par with Pixar’s bests and the storytelling, leisurely and enjoyable. Some critics have drawn social parallelisms between the fate that befallen the retired superheroes to the current social norm heavily dependent on litigation. The superheroes were once mighty group of law enforcers who were forced to retire when most of the people they saved felt “victimized” by the obtrusive nature of their heroic acts and started suing them. Funny it seems but it happens in everyday life now. In the end though, when the people get to see the goods this real superheroes are made of they are once again exalted in public. But lingering thoughts take us back to the time when they were unceremoniously retired and there is fear as to just until when the public’s euphoria over their exploits last and how eventually they will be forced into seclusion again. “Bridget Jones: The edge of Reason” stars Renee Zellwegger as Bridget who returns once again to regale us with her tale of love that doesn’t end happily ever after or so it seems when applied to her overly neurotic personality. Zellwegger sizzles in another great performance and she is again supported by Colin Firth as the conservative and reserved Marc Darcy and Hugh Grant who is back as bridget’s dashing and playboy ex Daniel Cleaver who happens to have changed for the better and shuns casual sex. It is 8 weeks into Bridget’s relationship with Darcy when she stumbles on her first great rival, the long-legged, svelte lawyer Rebecca. Typical of Bridget, she rushes to her friends for advice and she ends up more confused and unreasonably jealous. She breaks up with Darcy and goes to Thailand with Cleaver. In Thailand, they met a stranger who introduces Bridget to the illicit joy of Narcotics. She was almost tempted into going to bed with Cleaver until a ‘room service’ interrupted the interlude. Bridget is caught trying to smuggle drugs out of Thailand, the package she innocently carries for her friend turned out to have drugs inside. She gets imprisoned but is once again rescued by Darcy. Later, Bridget realizes that her jealousy were not only unfounded but also funny. When confronted, Rebecca confesses to Bridget that she was indeed in love but not with Darcy. Hmmm… Who could she be in love with? And so ends the movie happily again until the next neurosis of Bridget comes into surface one more time and unnecessarily wreaking havoc on her romance with Darcy. There are a lot of funny scenes in the movie but what set this movie different from the first one is its attempt to further show the audience the special character that Bridget Jones is. In the Thailand prison scenes, she made friends easily with the inmates there. She taught them how to sing Madonna’s Like a Virgin properly and related to their love problems with her own (which she is forced to make up because she realized that Darcy have been very good to her all along.) Bridget may not be perfect but as portrayed by Zellwegger she comes off lovable and endearing and she doesn't know how much loved she is. There is a scene where Darcy and Cleaver were fighting over something and later on the audience realizes that Darcy is in fact jealous and only wants to be assured that nothing happened between Cleaver and Bridget in Thailand. And if Bridget were present during this fight she would have cheered on whoever was the victor! Lovely.