Thursday, November 19, 2009

Book & Movie: Bridget Jones's Diary

I've been wanting to read this for ages, and, in need of some light heartedness, I finally grabbed it off my shelf. It took me a little bit to get into the book as it truly is written as diary entries, but once I did I found myself thoroughly enjoying it.

In many regards, the movie is very true to the book, from characters, to dialogue, to events (fire pole, blue soup, et al). However, this is one case where I like the movie more than the book. The movie expands on certain events (eg. Daniel leaving Bridget) and puts more depth into both Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy than Fielding's diary style writing can include. The movie took time to build the relationships a little better... and added more to the tension between Mark & Daniel.

In the book Bridget's relationship with Mark comes a little out of left field and I was left wondering whether Bridget was just grateful or really in love with him. (The book actually ends more like the second movie, with Mark rescuing Bridget's mum out of a jam with her seedy boyfriend.)

Is it worth the read? Definitely. Julie says reading the sequel's even better... oh, and look! It just moved to the top of my 'To be Read' pile!

5 comments:

Julie said...

I didn't read the 2nd book until I had seen the first movie! I love the books and am excited they are supposedly doing a 3rd movie.

A Bookshelf Monstrosity said...

I really enjoyed this book. Fielding has a great sense of humor. Didn't really care for the sequel; maybe you'll feel differently :) Happy reading.

Anonymous said...

I reviewed the movie and the book last week and I agree with you. I thought the movie was better.

Serena said...

I really enjoyed both of these for their own merits and find them comparable.

Anonymous said...

The sequel really is even better than the first :). The Bridget movie is one of those rare cases where the screenwriters actually got the adaptation right/