BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON brings back the cast from the 2001 delight Bridget Jones’s Diary. A fourth writer was added to the three who did such a great job on the first go, including Helen Fielding, whose novel got Bridgetmania underway. This second installment came from her follow-up book. Adam Brooks (French Kiss, Practical Magic) joined Fielding, Richard Curtis and Andrew Davies for the script. Whether it was a case of eight hands being two too many, or swapping directors—the original’s Sharon Maguire replaced by Beeban Kidron (To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar)—this time around, despite a number of funny bits and expected smooth work from the cast the prattling and pratfalling doesn’t come close to the charm and wit that made the first a hit and a keeper. *

Doggedly clumsy TV reporter Bridget (Renée Zellweger) finds her happiness with steady-going boyfriend ‘Mark’ (Colin Firth) shaken by his work proximity to smart, well-off, beautiful (and slim) ‘Rebecca Gillies’ (Jacinda Barrett), and crossed wires lead baffled Bridget back into the orbit of her ex, proto-hound ‘Daniel’ (Hugh Grant). During a trip to Thailand, Bridget’s romantic woes take a back seat to legal limbo when she’s unwittingly used as a drug mule and ends up a potentially long-term guest in a less-cheery part of The Land Of Smiles.

As before, the stars and returning supporting players are more than up to par, but much of the material feels obvious, and using ‘caught-with-drugs-in-Bangkok’ as a plot gimmick is shaky ground for humor. The other Thailand-as-naughty scenes are pretty cheap shots as well: the jokes generated leave a sour aftertaste. Did the patient but proud Thai take this as tease or slap? **

Number 2 for Bridget & mates was 80% more costly ($45,000,000), and went further afield, shooting not just in England but at a ski resort in Austria and in Thailand, employing Bangkok, Phuket and Nakhon Pathom. Reviews were tepid, many scalding, then in the States box office winked a weak 74th, $40,200,000. Abroad, that was bettered five times over with a further $224,900,000.

On board again: Sally Phillips, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Shirley Henderson, James Callis, Neal Pearson, Celia Imrie, James Faulkner. Also with Ian McNeice, Ting Ting Hu and seventeen pop songs on the soundtrack. 108 minutes.

* While the continuing misadventures of cheeky Ms. Jones were not as fun as her first foray, they at least offered some relatively painless fancy in ’04 for those who didn’t try to grok muddled relationship issues through the brain shards of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, the spleen of Closer or the heartburn of I Heart Huckabees. 

The next installment, a fairly distant twelve years later, 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby, got a warmer reception. 

** The Bridget On The River Why—-who wants to look bad when you can dump on your equally guilty neighbor? In dramas concerning foreigners going to jail for drugs in Asia, for example, the usual drill is to film in another (nearby) country than the one portrayed. In Brokedown Palace, Thailand is portrayed by the Philippines; in Return To Paradise, Thailand subs for Malaysia.  Did the Thai censors look at the script for this comedy? Or was this another case where pride skips after money talks? Surely not in Thailand…”I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling’s going on in here!”