Yearly, I’ve just a few seasonal watches that I return to time and again. Within the fall, I like to rewatch Little Women (the 2019 model all the time), and for New Year’s Eve, I all the time discover myself rewatching When Harry Met Sally. Across the vacation season, my rewatch is a film that isn’t technically a Christmas movie however positively has seasonally applicable vibes. I am talking, in fact, about Bridget Jones’s Diary.
The 2001 romantic comedy follows the love {and professional} life of 32-year-old Bridget Jones, who finds herself in the midst of a love triangle with the dastardly Daniel Cleaver and the impolite (but additionally fairly charming) Mark Darcy. The British movie is a big-time consolation watch — one I’ve loved since I used to be a young person, lengthy earlier than I used to be the identical age because the protagonist.
However as a lot as I benefit from the movie and proceed to gravitate in direction of it, I had an epiphany throughout a current rewatch: This can be a film I’ll love, however it’s not one I plan to ever advocate to my daughter.
Why I watch it in another way as a mother or father to a daughter
Similar to any mother or father, having a child fully modified my worldview. Now, I see nearly all the pieces via the lens of “What is going to my daughter take into consideration this?” And my current rewatch made me notice how a lot of Bridget Jones’s Diary comprises issues that 100% veer into problematic territory.
Unhealthy weight expectations
Bridget writes in her diary about being 130 or so kilos and desirous to lose 20 kilos. Actually, it comes up in most of her diary entries. Whereas this tidbit did not considerably affect me once I first watched the movie as a teen, I might be mendacity if I stated it hadn’t crossed my ideas as I’ve struggled with my weight all through maturity.
The deal with being ultra-thin is probably going a symptom of the story happening within the early 2000s, a time that was particularly toxic in direction of making ladies attempt to be skinny. Whereas Bridget’s need to drop some weight might have been a practical portrayal of what ladies attempt for, I am unable to assist however cringe each time I watch the film and see a superbly wholesome particular person discuss how she finds herself chubby.
Poisonous relationships
Hugh Grant is one of the most charming actors of this era, and that’s on full show right here. Clearly, his Daniel Cleaver is meant to be smarmy and gross, a scenario that is identified a number of instances all through.
However, actually, Bridget’s relationship with each the villainous Cleaver and the heroic Mark Darcy has ranges of toxicity. The best way Mark treats Bridget at the start of the film is genuinely impolite, although he does go an extended approach of apologizing than Daniel ever does.
Whereas Mark’s relationship with Bridget was the peak of romance for me as a younger grownup, there are a lot of parts now that I might see as a serious purple flag if it was a accomplice my child was making an attempt so far.
Single doesn’t equal nugatory
Now, I perceive that is, in spite of everything, Bridget’s diary, so self-critical ideas are her personal. Nevertheless, the deal with Bridget’s relationship standing is maybe my largest pet peeve with the movie. Here is a beautiful lady with an fascinating job, a flat in London, and an exquisite group of pals. Everybody’s deal with why she’s nonetheless single as a 30-something is, fairly frankly, weird.
Once more, this can be extra the fault of the time interval through which the film was primarily based, however I might hope if this story was instructed immediately (from the beginning, not as a sequel), there can be much more deal with how fulfilled Bridget’s life is in each approach, versus whether or not she had discovered somebody to marry. (Additionally value noting that I am conscious the story is loosely primarily based on Satisfaction and Prejudice, the place that is clearly a serious plot level.).
Will I preserve watching it?
I’m nicely conscious that films aren’t purported to be the morality police — it isn’t as if I would like each fictional character to be a task mannequin for myself or my child. However I might be mendacity if I stated a few of the focus of Bridget Jones’s Diary would not make me uncomfortable to ever advocate the film to my daughter or nieces.
It is a enjoyable film and one I take pleasure in rewatching. However as society’s view on ladies has (hopefully) modified up to now quarter century, fairly just a few parts of the movie really feel outdated in a approach that may, at instances, be onerous to look at. Nonetheless, I am a sucker for that finish scene of Bridget operating to satisfy Darcy within the snow, and I will by no means not snicker at her two love pursuits stopping to sing “joyful birthday” throughout their struggle scene.
However do my rewatches make me glad we have seen a change in how feminine protagonists have begun to be modified in romantic comedies these days? Completely.
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