Bridget Jones - Chocolate for Breakfast: Perceptively mocking singles study based on the bestselling novel about the droll love life of anchatty, tactless Englishwoman

 Since Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, there hasn't been as much hype about a casting decision as American Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty) has had for the title role in the film adaptation of the arch-British Helen Fielding's bestseller Bridget Jones's Chocolate for Breakfast. The extensive fan base of the highly amusing novel about the droll (love) life of a single,smoking, drinking and sometimes nervously chattering and tactless English woman could not imagine a willowy Texan in the imperfect skin of her true-to-life heroine, with the best will in the world. But despite all the prophecies of doom, Zellweger, like her former film partner Cruise (in Cameron Crowe's "Jerry Maguire - Game of Life proves more than up to the task and offers a brilliant performance with her excellent comic timing


 Like her method actor colleagues Robert De Niro ("Raging Bull") and Russell Crowe ("Insider the protagonist of the astutely mocking singles study systematically ate a hefty portion of excess weight. In addition, she studied a British accent, with which she can hold her own in the original alongside the two authentic Brits Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. In general, it is a very English project in which many strands of film come together. Debut director Sharon Maguire, who previously made a name for herself as a documentary andmaker, originally acted as a template for writer Fielding for one of Bridget's friends. The book (which is based on Fielding's column in the Independent) is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice, with Colin Firth's character of Mr Darcy from the BBC series of the Jane Austen classic transformed into snobby lawyer Mark Darcy in Bridget becomes. Fielding, Andrew Davis ("Pride and Prejudice") and Richard Curtis, who previously wrote "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Notting Hill," both co-produced by Working Title, wrote the script. Star of the latter hit comedies - Hugh Grant - now plays, cast against the grain, Bridget'spublishing boss Daniel Cleaver, with whom the love-hungry Bridget starts an office affair against better reason. Temporarily in seventh heaven, Bridget is devastated when Cleaver dumps her for someone else. Single again in an environment of "smug married couples", the suffering thirtysomething first drowns his sorrows in alcohol, cigarettes and sing-alongs to Chaka Khan. Eventually she looks for a new job as a television journalist. In this role, she pulls off some deliciously funny episodes (her sizable behind features prominently in one interview) and also once again runs into lawyer Mark Darcy, with whom she was trying to set her quirky mother (Gemma Jones) up. Their encounters have always been awkward, so Bridget is blown away when Darcy admits she likes her just the way she is. They first bond at their birthday dinner, but then Cleaver shows up unexpectedly, with whom Darcy has an ax to grind from the past

 In contrast to the formulaic and unoriginal grossout humor of current gag grotesques, the lively love comedy about the search for lust, love and self-acceptance comes up with hearty and charming self-irony. She is less intellectual than Woody Allen in his best days, but always highly entertaining, smart and charming. Like the book, the film hits a nerve with the broad female audience with its closeness to reality. After "Bridget Jones" already stormed the British and American charts, one can also look forward to an impressive success in this country. era.