Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

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.

I have to admit that I was convinced that they were quite wrong for each other because he could never do enough to make her believe that he really loves her. How that person makes you feel about yourself is an important part of a relationship and despite his never putting her down or anything, Mr. Darcy seems doomed to make Bridget feel fat and inferior because she lacks the self-esteem to feel secure about him.

The moral of the story seems to be: 'Don't date a guy prettier than you are!' Bridget would probably be happier with a less "trophy" guy who makes her feel like she shines by comparison. (Nothing makes me happier in a relationship than feeling that my lousy guy can't possibly do better. Not!)

I felt that her constant need for reassurance would drive him away one day, even though he seemed willing to put up with it for now.

The first part of the movie was agony because I've been there. The end had some of the fun of the last movie by repeating the same stuff.

Watching relationships break up isn't my idea of romantic comedy. And of course the endless fat jokes about someone half my size didn't help.