BRIDGET JONES'S BABY: NEL TERZO ATTO DI BRIDGET JONES RENĂE ZELLWEGER E COLIN FIRTH CONDIVIDONO IL PRIMO PIANO CON PATRICK DEMPSEY SOTTO L'EGIDA DELLA REGISTA SHARON MAGUIRE (IL DIARIO DI BRIDGET JONES)
PREVIEW in ENGLISH by Catherine Bray (www.variety.com) - Dal 22 SETTEMBRE
(Bridget Jones's Baby; REGNO UNITO 2016; Commedia romantica; 122'; Produz.: Miramax/Universal Pictures/Working Title Films; Distribuz.: Universal Pictures International Italy)
Effetti Speciali: Chris Reynolds (supervisore effetti speciali); Simon Hughes (supervisore effetti visivi)
Casting: Nina Gold
Scheda film aggiornata al:
10 Ottobre 2016
Sinossi:
Nuovamente single dopo essersi lasciata con Mark Darcy (Firth) il "vissero felici e contenti" di Bridget Jones (Zellweger) non sta andando esattamente secondo i piani.
Bridget decide di concentrarsi sul suo lavoro di collaboratrice in un notiziario di punta, e di circondarsi di vecchi e nuovi amici. Per una volta, Bridget ha tutto completamente sotto controllo. Cosa potrebbe andare storto?
La sua vita sentimentale ha perĂČ una svolta quando Bridget incontra un affascinante americano di nome Jack (Dempsey), tutto quello che Mr. Darcy non Ăš.
In un improbabile colpo di scena, si ritrova in dolce attesa, ma con un inconveniente... non Ăš sicura dell'identitĂ del padre.
SHORT SYNOPSIS:
The continuing adventures of British publishing executive Bridget Jones as she enters her 40s.
Commento critico (a cura di Catherine Bray, www.variety.com)
Bridget is back, and while this commercially viable third installment doesnât quite hit the heights of the first film, itâs a marked improvement on the second.
a healthy delivery for the godparents of this âBaby,â Universal and Working Title.
Indeed, Bridget is back⊠and this time sheâs eating for two! Actually, despite the fact that the central dilemma of the film relates to pregnancy, weight gain is not something Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Emma Thompsonâs script for this third installment chooses to overly dwell on; theyâve sensibly intuited that both Bridget in particular and humanity in general need to move gracefully on from a calorie-counting fixation that now feels a bit â90s. Itâs up for debate whether graduating from an obsession with thigh circumference to a focus on an âaccidentalâ pregnancy in which the mother doesnât consult either of the potential fathers in advance really represents the zenith of progress for female representation in cinema. Still, at least the behavior of the main players feels, for the most part, recognizably human.
Opening with a call-back to the
beginning of 2001âs smash âBridget Jonesâs Diary,â we find Bridget sitting in the same apartment in a now gentrified Borough Market. Sheâs wearing the same red flannel PJs with unhip penguin design, getting blotto on a bottle of white wine. She is, once more, singing along solo to âAll By Myself.â However, unlike the Bridget of yore, who leaned into the sadness and mimed the entire song, this older version, who has just turned 43, determinedly changes the song to House of Painâs âJump Aroundâ and proceeds to do just that, lip-syncing and bouncing on the bed. Itâs one of those private, deeply uncool moments that cinema tends not to show us are enacted just as much by middle-aged women as by teenagers, and itâs nicely played by Zellweger. The actress is unlikely to repeat the Academy Award nomination she justly received for the comic master-class she gave in the
first film, but she slips back into the role as comfortably as her old penguin pajamas â as does âDiaryâ director Sharon Maguire, who returns here having ducked out of the second film.
Alas, despite Zellwegerâs appealingly warm, vulnerable performance, the film itself is a mixed bag. Zesty and really rather good one-liners skewering such modern cultural phenomena as âglampingâ (âcalling him Gladolf Hitler wouldnât suddenly make us forget all the unpleasantnessâ) sit alongside limper offerings such as the stale observation that people now put pictures of their lunch on Instagram. The assumption seems to be that a mere reference to something as newfangled as the photo- and video-sharing app will pass for a gag in and of itself, which, to be fair, is an optimistic assumption shared by plenty of writers.
Indeed, the sequel is caught in something of a bind as far as the zeitgeist is concerned. The audience is
interested in this quintessentially turn-of-the-century character for nostalgic reasons: Should the filmmakers attempt to service fond memories or opt to update with modern dilemmas? âBridget Jonesâs Babyâ aims to do both, resulting in something of an identity crisis â encapsulated neatly in the contrasts of a jukebox soundtrack that lurches from karaoke classics of the sort featured in the first film (âWe Are Family,â âAinât No Stopping Us Now,â âWalk on Byâ) to the likes of Ed Sheeran, Pharrell, and Rihanna, and then back to Burt Bacharach and Marvin Gaye. Where including then-contemporary artists like Robbie Williams was a natural part of Bridgetâs cultural backdrop in 2001, this time around it feels like the music is sometimes working against this ostensibly older and wiser incarnation.
It is not a huge surprise that the highs of the original film, which so perfectly captured a moment in pop culture, are difficult to replicate.
Hugh Grantâs absence as caddish Daniel Cleaver is certainly felt, though it also results in a fun sight gag where half of the Eastern European-model population of London has gathered for a Daniel-centric rendezvous. Fleeting efforts to catch up with the now smugly married gang of former singletons feel perfunctory (a pity given the caliber of comedic talent involved here), while the screen time devoted to the world of Bridgetâs parents feels similarly truncated, despite the filmâs two-hour run time; the edit was perhaps not an easy one.
No doubt âEdge of Reasonâ was a low bar to clear, and âBaby,â though an odd fish at times, certainly does that, particularly thanks to its sincere attempt to grapple with the issues Bridget might be facing at this stage in her life. The film isnât as starkly observant as Fieldingâs third Bridget book, the perkily titled âMad About the Boy,â in which
Bridget is a widow in her 50s bringing up the late Mark Darcyâs children. But âBabyâ can at least claim to restore a modicum of respect for the character, which went completely AWOL in the last film.
But is âBabyâ funny? The moments that will be remembered, and used to market the film, are the biggest and broadest (Bridget falling over in the mud, the image of bare derrieres on TV, etc.), but not necessarily the best. Restrained line deliveries from co-writer Thompson (as obstetrician Dr. Rawlings) and Colin Firth are among the highlights, with Thompson essaying a wry tone that calls to mind the late Alan Rickman, while Firth fractionally amps up Mark Darcyâs inherent social awkwardness, to good comic effect.
âBridget Jonesâs Babyâ is not a comedy for the ages, but itâs interesting to see a rom-com starring a middle-aged woman grappling with irrelevance in the workplace. It doesnât hurt
That this is a song sung in a slightly more pensive, even at times melancholy, key than the first parts of the trilogy shouldnât hurt the filmâs appeal at the box office. Distributors will face little challenge in presenting it as a knockabout romp starring a beloved female lead, of which there are still not nearly enough to sate demand.
Perle di sceneggiatura
Bibliografia:
Nota: Si ringraziano Universal Pictures International Italy e Silvia Saba (SwService)