[SPOILER ALERT!]Grade: C-
It wasn't really that good. It wasn't that bad--it was pretty average. Unfortunately, having already seen the movie, I already had some preconceived notions of what was going to happen in this book. Unlike the first of the Bridget Jones diaries, however, this movie did not follow the book that closely. One big example: Rebecca being gay. I remember watching Edge of Reason before and I'm pretty sure you find out that Rebecca (or whatever the "other woman" may have been named in the movie) really was in love with Bridget the whole time. This used to confuse me, because I didn't quite see how it was possible that she would fall in love with Bridget but somehow end up with Mark? I mean, I get her trying to break them up if she wanted to be with Bridget, but I don't quite get why she'd end up with Mark. Anyway, the whole time I read the book, I kept seeing lesbian undertones in everything she did with Bridget, and instead of finding it annoying, I found it endearing. Turns out--in the book anyway--Rebecca is not a lesbian in love with Bridget, but is, indeed, just a stuck up bitch who was trying to steal Mark away from Bridget because she's a... well, stuck up bitch.
So that was the first big difference. The other was that Daniel Cleaver's existence in this novel is practically non-existent. Which is fine, as I am definitely more into Colin Firth in my brain than Hugh Grant anyway. In the movie, Thailand plays a giant role, but it didn't happen until at least a third of the way into the book, so I was anticipating that. Everything that happened before that seemed almost... irrelevant? Is that the word I'm looking for? Anyway, Pam Jones, Bridget's mom was still as insufferable as ever. Poor Colin, her dad, was a drunk lush through most of the movie--I was sure he was getting high, but apparently not, just drunk.
Probably one of the parts that sticks out to me the most about Bridget in this installment of her life is that she is ALWAYS LATE. I know I can be late sometimes, but I do try my best to be on time (if not early). She is chronically late. It was kind of funny at first--she'd always be late to work and her asshole boss, Richard Finch, would always make fun of her. But come ON... really? She gets to do the interview of a lifetime (next paragraph) and she MISSES HER PLANE. W-T-F Bridget. GIVE ME BREAK! This is COLIN FIRTH we're talking about here, and you MISS YOUR PLANE because you were doing the stupidest shit and running late. UGH, I was hating her SO MUCH while reading that. I also got mad at her, Jude & Shazzer when they erased Colin Firth from Bridget's answering machine. I. WAS. PISSED!
Anyway, so, the BEST PART of this novel (and funny, because Mark Darcy is played by Colin Firth in the movie, and therefor one in the same in my mind) is that Bridget--a budding journalist-- gets the opportunity to interview Mr. Darcy Colin Firth for an interview. So, for a second, I had to imagine that Mark Darcy wasn't Colin Firth, so that Colin Firth could himself be Colin Firth. It never made it into the movie, because, how could they make that distinction without totally throwing off the movie (think: Julia Roberts playing someone else who merely looked like Julia Roberts, who was pretending to be a pregnant Julia Roberts in Oceans Twelve). Anyway, what I'm SUPER excited about is the fact that apparently, though it didn't make it into the movie, they DID film Bridget interviewing Colin Firth in his regular "street" clothes. AND IT'S ON THE DVD! I-AM-SO-EXCITED! (Almost enough to bump this to a B-.)
Anyway, overall, It was slightly above average. I probably won't be reading it again, but I am glad I read it. Part of me is kind of mad that I was feeling sorry for Rebecca being a closet lesbian instead of what I should've been feeling--which was total hatred for the bitch. Anyway, Thomas and I will most likely be popping the movie in later on today--I'll hate her during the movie to make up for it.
Oh, and remember back when I wrote about Elliot Cowan being my Darcy? I might have to take that back... Colin Firth is not only a great Fitzwilliam Darcy, but he's a WONDERFUL MARK DARCY... which makes him double Darcy... so maybe Colin Firth is actually Darcy?
I sound like Bridget. More about Bridget, less about Darcy (Fitzwilliam OR Mark). Bridget comes to terms with the fact that maybe her self-help books are what pushed Mark away. (This was helped by the fact that she overheard Mark and Rebecca talking.) It's pretty good that she ends up finding self-help books in HIS home later though.
Other things of note that happened in the book that were totally weird and did not show up in the movie at all, Gary the Builder. This guy... he was such a strange character, I almost don't even know how they could've written him into the movie without making it seem very... odd, so I guess that's why they left him out. The whole thing about him just coming into her apartment and suggesting an addition and then tearing down the wall and leaving a hole there? Then the stinky smell coming from rotting meet that Bridget's mom packed... the bullet with her name on it meant as a death threat (I thought that SURELY this was a misunderstanding--as is much of the drama that happens in Bridget's life). Jude marries Vile Richard, much to the dismay of Bridge & Shaz. I was on the treadmill reading this when I realized how funny it was that a friend of Bridget's is marrying someone who's named Richard that NOBODY thinks is a good idea. I've decided that, at least to myself, I will also refer to a Richard in (or... not really in, but there) my life as Vile.
Vile. Vile. Vile. Vile Richard & Vile Rebecca should just go make some Vile children together. (I'm trying to make up for the hating of Rebecca now, can you tell?)
One thing that kept popping up throughout the novel was a poem by Kipling (I think?) called 'If' (which helped Bridget survive and stay sane in the Thai prison) and lyrics from the "Nature Boy" song, which is, I think, the lesson that Bridget (and I) came away with at the end of this novel. So that is what I will leave with you... along with photos of our man, Colin Firth in both Darcy forms.
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."
Nat King Cole, "Nature Boy"
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