Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

My sister and mother went to see the new "Bridget Jones" movie (which won't open for several weeks, yet, I understand) at a free sneak preview last night, and here's my sister's rather discouraging analysis of the film (no more spoilers in her review than are contained in the trailer for the film now showing in multiplexes everywhere, but I'm hiding most of it behind a cut-line, just in case):

It's true that I am just getting my period and am lousy with hormones and a little sensitive about weight gain from sitting on my ass because my foot is still so f---ed up from surgery, but I found this movie VERY depressing, and I don't think I can blame the hormones entirely.

First of all, how much does the movie business hate pudgy women that it won't cast them to play a pudgy character if she's the lead and we're supposed to sympathize with her? They hate the idea of fat women so much they will only hire a skinny woman to become temporarily plump for these movies. First Toni Collette gains 40 pounds for Muriel's Wedding, then Minnie Driver gains weight for Circle of Friends, and then they hire teensy Renee Zellweger to put on 20 pounds to bring her weight up to AVERAGE so she can have endless jokes made about her figure. I was looking at her thinking that she still has no hips and when they don't squeeze her into some trashy outfit two sizes too small, she looks absolutely gorgeous. She may have a tummy that's no longer completely flat and a little extra around her chin and upper arms, but I wish to God I was as f---ing thin as this Bridget Jones.

The main problem however is that at the end of the first movie, she has found her dream man and where do we go from there? Well, we get to watch her go through the agony of feeling that she doesn't deserve this perfect guy and the fear that he will be off with the first thin uppercrust girl he can find. ( Read more... )