Over a decade on, this romantic comedy stands up extremely well, due in part to its three perfectly cast leads. We can tell this in hindsight but at the time things weren't so clear - Hugh Grant made his name playing nice guys rather than cads, Colin Firth's several previous attempts to become a film star had come to nothing, and there was outcry and confusion over Renee Zellweger's casting for such a British role (especially with Kate Winslet hanging around).
But Grant revived his career with a performance that presumably is a lot closer to the real life Grant, Firth's awkwardness was very well used and Zellweger turned out to be cute and likeable, with a (to my foreign ears anyway) effective accent. There's also an outstanding support cast including people like Jim Broadbent plus the 50 worders who play the smug marrieds.
Occasionally this strikes a bung note - Bridget's friends feel under-used, Darcy falls for Bridget awfully quickly (and she becomes a TV presented with equal rapidity), it glorifies drinking and smoking and mediocrity, and gave unrealistic dreams to far too many women who worked in TV in real life. But a very winning, likeable movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment