Every year, I have a few seasonal watches that I return to again and again. In the fall, I love to rewatch Little Women (the 2019 version always), and for New Year’s Eve, I always find myself rewatching When Harry Met Sally. Around the holiday season, my rewatch is a movie that isn’t technically a Christmas movie but definitely has seasonally appropriate vibes. I’m speaking, of course, about Bridget Jones’s Diary.
The 2001 romantic comedy follows the love and professional life of 32-year-old Bridget Jones, who finds herself in the middle of a love triangle with the dastardly Daniel Cleaver and the rude (but also quite charming) Mark Darcy. The British film is a big-time comfort watch — one I’ve enjoyed since I was a teenager, long before I was the same age as the protagonist.
But as much as I enjoy the film and continue to gravitate towards it, I had an epiphany during a recent rewatch: This is a movie I may love, but it is not one I plan to ever recommend to my daughter.
Why I watch it differently as a parent to a daughter
Just like any parent, having a kid completely changed my worldview. Now, I see just about everything through the lens of “What will my daughter think about this?” And my recent rewatch made me realize how much of Bridget Jones’s Diary contains things that 100% veer into problematic territory.
Unhealthy weight expectations
Bridget writes in her diary about being 130 or so pounds and wanting to lose 20 pounds. In fact, it comes up in most of her diary entries. While this tidbit didn’t significantly impact me when I first watched the film as a teen, I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my thoughts as I’ve struggled with my weight throughout adulthood.
The focus on being ultra-thin is likely a symptom of the story taking place in the early 2000s, a time that was particularly toxic towards making women strive to be thin. While Bridget’s desire to lose weight may have been a realistic portrayal of what women strive for, I can’t help but cringe every time I watch the movie and see a perfectly healthy person talk about how she finds herself overweight.
Toxic relationships
Hugh Grant is one of the most charming actors of this generation, and that is on full display here. Obviously, his Daniel Cleaver is supposed to be smarmy and gross, a situation that’s pointed out multiple times throughout.
But, honestly, Bridget’s relationship with both the villainous Cleaver and the heroic Mark Darcy has levels of toxicity. The way Mark treats Bridget at the beginning of the movie is genuinely rude, though he does go a longer way of apologizing than Daniel ever does.
While Mark’s relationship with Bridget was the height of romance for me as a young adult, there are many elements now that I’d see as a major red flag if it was a partner my kid was trying to date.
Single does not equal worthless
Now, I understand this is, after all, Bridget’s diary, so self-critical thoughts are her own. However, the focus on Bridget’s relationship status is perhaps my biggest pet peeve with the film. Here’s a gorgeous woman with an interesting job, a flat in London, and a wonderful group of friends. Everyone’s focus on why she’s still single as a 30-something is, quite frankly, bizarre.
Again, this may be more the fault of the time period in which the movie was based, but I’d hope if this story was told today (from the start, not as a sequel), there would be far more focus on how fulfilled Bridget’s life is in every way, versus whether she had found someone to marry. (Also worth noting that I’m aware the story is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, where this is obviously a major plot point.).
Will I keep watching it?
I am well aware that movies aren’t supposed to be the morality police — it’s not as if I need every fictional character to be a role model for myself or my kid. But I’d be lying if I said some of the focus of Bridget Jones’s Diary doesn’t make me uncomfortable to ever recommend the movie to my daughter or nieces.
It’s a fun movie and one I enjoy rewatching. But as society’s view on women has (hopefully) changed in the past quarter century, quite a few elements of the film feel outdated in a way that can, at times, be hard to watch. Still, I’m a sucker for that end scene of Bridget running to meet Darcy in the snow, and I’ll never not laugh at her two love interests stopping to sing “happy birthday” during their fight scene.
But do my rewatches make me glad we’ve seen a change in how female protagonists have begun to be changed in romantic comedies nowadays? Absolutely.
