Sharon Maguire's Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) belongs to the rich
British tradition of domestic lower-class comedy/dramas. The protagonist is
an average working girl in a world not as easy as romances depict it.
Bridget is a secretary who lives by herself, is obsessed with the idea of
becoming a lonely spinster and is madly in love with her boss Daniel.
She is a little chabby and smokes and drinks a lot. Her main company are
three friends she meets frequently at the pub.
Daniel finally invites her out and they become lovers. Bridget is ecstatic
and hardly pays attention to the contempt that a cold, stiff ex schoolfriend,
Mark, displays for her (Mark recently divorced and their parents have tried to
match them, but obtained the opposite result).
The romance with Daniel seems to proceed wonderfully for Bridget until one
day Bridget finds him cheating with a young, attractive New York lawyer,
Natasha.
It's then that Bridget gets closer to Mark, a man who is actually sensitive
and honest, although not glamorous. Bridget then learns that Mark hates Daniel
because Daniel slept with his wife. Daniel shows up at her little birthday
dinner and begs her to return to him in front of Mark and her three friends.
Mark, disgusted, attacks Daniel. They fight in the street in front of an
amused crowd. Bridget is upset by Mark's sudden ferocity, but later understands
that he is the better of the two. Unfortunately, Mark has already decided to
move to New York, and with the very Natasha that stole Daniel from Bridget.
Bridget is already resigned to start it all over again, lonely splinster and
all, when Mark has second thoughts and comes back to her. Bridget is ecstatic.
But Mark accidentally reads her diary and her terrible description of him.
Mark leaves the apartment without a word. Bridget runs after him in the
snow half-naked... but he only went to the store to buy her a new diary.
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