New Year’s Films 7 – Bridget Jones’s Diary

Continuing our focus on New Year’s films to help you either build a film around this holiday or use the holiday as a catalyst for something interesting in your story, we go to one of the queens of New Year’s films— Bridget Jones’s Diary [2001] by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis.

This is a film that starts and ends with the same event—a holiday party. First Bridget’s mother’s New Year’s turkey curry buffet, where Bridget meets Mark whom she will win and lose as a boyfriend ruing the year, to Mark’s parent’s ruby wedding party a year later. So New Year’s Day bookends the film with these two parties.

The crux of this film, of course, is Bridget—just a girl looking for love. Take a look at the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtB2FwwaMT0

What strikes you most about the film? For me, it’s the energy. It just moves. Because, ask yourself, what differentiates this romantic comedy from any other? Sure, most romantic comedies have a fast pace, but this one is almost hyper. Some of that comes from the direction and even the music, but I think it also comes from the script.

It’s not easy to write fast-paced dialogue and narration. But this one does that in spades.

BUT—just a side about narration. This film was based on a book and the character’s voice in that book was very distinct, so having it the film worked. But I’d encourage you to COMPLETELY avoid using narration until you’re an established screenwriter. Using narration/voiceover is seen as a crutch in the business—because the thought is you weren’t able to tell the story through action and dialogue and had to resort to the easy way out—narration. So best to avoid it completely before you get labeled as someone who can’t write action and dialogue!

Back to Bridget. In addition to the fast pace, it’s the characters and their naturalistic dialogue that are the star. Really study those scenes and see if you can dissect why they work.

In terms of New Year’s, that’s the main construct of the story, isn’t it? Bridget buys a diary to record her progress in the year on her resolve to smoke less, drink less, weigh less and stop fantasizing about inappropriate men. She has little luck in any of these areas—except the last. She no longer has to fantasize about her boss, Daniel, she actually has a relationship with him… that breaks her heart.

But, of course, there’s another guy—Mark—who we know should be the love of her life. And it’s great fun watching her reach that conclusion, too, and go after him—something she does with the manic energy she’s good at.

A fun film, that spawned two sequels, and is a good one to watch around the new year as it’s kind of inspiring—imagine all of that happening, imagine your life turning around that much, in just one year! Ah, the stuff romantic comedies are made of.

Next week, let’s head to Broadway…

Copyright © Diane Lake

06Feb22

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com