Speaker 1: On the be Dol cast, The questions asked if movies
Speaker 1: have women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends
Speaker 1: and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef
Speaker 1: in best start changing it with the bel cast. Hey, Caitlin, yes, Jamie,
Speaker 1: am I okay, this is not going to pass the
Speaker 1: backdel test. But am I completely alone in having a
Speaker 1: lifelong struggle with knowing the difference of Colin being on
Speaker 1: screen and Hugh being on screen? Is that something you've
Speaker 1: ever Have you ever been like, oh, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: Colin Firth or it was huge, because it's usually one
Speaker 1: or the other, but when it's both, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if my notes make a shred of sense. I
Speaker 1: have not had this problem. I know that they're both
Speaker 1: like stuffy english men, but they look different enough to
Speaker 1: me that I can very easily tell them apart their
Speaker 1: hair is different and their eye color is different, and
Speaker 1: they're faces are so different, face structures different. But they're
Speaker 1: the same guy though, you know, like they're the same guy.
Speaker 1: Like they've both won awards, they've both pivoted to drama,
Speaker 1: they've both they both say cute little things, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I guess the difference is what, like, Hugh Grant is
Speaker 1: horny ar like that Hugh Grant, he's got more charmed,
Speaker 1: like raw charmed to him, whereas like Colin Firth tends
Speaker 1: to be more like stoic and awkward. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's just like that. I don't know the difference between them,
Speaker 1: and I refused to learn. I think that like Hugh
Speaker 1: Grant is I mean, if we're like in a death match.
Speaker 1: I hate to turn men against men, but if we're
Speaker 1: in a death match, I guess I would probably choose
Speaker 1: Hugh Grant to survive. Well, he was the villain in
Speaker 1: Paddington too, so he's a part of the Paddington extended
Speaker 1: universe and therefore cree and it's like, what is Colin
Speaker 1: Firth three? I mean Colin Firth is bringing Oh no,
Speaker 1: what if I'm wrong? Colin Firth is in What a
Speaker 1: Girl Wants? Is that right? Yes, that's him, not Hugh Grant.
Speaker 1: See it's hard well because I haven't really seen that movie.
Speaker 1: Um here's a fun fact. Everyone. Colin Firth was originally
Speaker 1: cast to be the voice of Paddington, but then they
Speaker 1: thought that he just didn't sound quite right, so they
Speaker 1: had to recast him. They're like, he's too similar to
Speaker 1: Huge Grant. People get confused. It's there to me, they're
Speaker 1: different flavors of the same exact person. Like if you
Speaker 1: if you have like a little like a little volume,
Speaker 1: if you turn the volume down, you get calling first.
Speaker 1: I also get, and then if you bring Colin Farrell,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my god, another like brunette European man
Speaker 1: that I'm just like, I couldn't pick out of a lineup.
Speaker 1: I know that moms know the difference, but I just
Speaker 1: this is their names confused because they're both calling f
Speaker 1: and then I get, yeah, I get Hugh Jackman and
Speaker 1: Hugh Grant. Not that the people confused, but I accidentally
Speaker 1: call I switched their names around. Hugh Jackman. Has I guess, yeah,
Speaker 1: Hugh Jackman and and Hugh Grant. I mean they both
Speaker 1: kind of have a theater kid energy. But it's like again,
Speaker 1: it's like Hugh Grant the volumes turned down a little bit.
Speaker 1: Then Hugh Jackman, it's like at a forty, you know,
Speaker 1: Hugh Jackman. Sometimes I'm like relaxed, but then other times
Speaker 1: I love it. I don't why are we talking about
Speaker 1: We're talking about welcome to the Bechtel Cast. This is
Speaker 1: not what it's normally like. I just I just want
Speaker 1: to like, I'm feeling excited but insecure going into this
Speaker 1: episode because I know there's a point in my notes
Speaker 1: on this movie where I realized I had the two
Speaker 1: character names mixed up and that I didn't know which
Speaker 1: one was. I went through whole scenes of Colin Firth
Speaker 1: being like, anyways, Hugh Grant, like, it's just it's hard
Speaker 1: for me. I know that there's going to be a
Speaker 1: bunch of people who are like, how could you not
Speaker 1: tell the difference between I don't know the difference between men?
Speaker 1: And that's feminism. I'll do my best to guide you
Speaker 1: through this. Jamie, thank you. Welcome to the Bechtel Cast. Um.
Speaker 1: You know if this is your first episode, that funny.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. So our show is the podcast where we
Speaker 1: usually condemn the talking about men. But it's kind of
Speaker 1: a loophole. If you're like, who are these people? True,
Speaker 1: We're like exactly, um, But in any case, so the
Speaker 1: Bechtel Cast is our show where we examine movies through
Speaker 1: an intersectional feminist lens, using the Bechtel test as a
Speaker 1: jumping off point, and of course That is a media
Speaker 1: metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechtel. Our rendition of
Speaker 1: the test requires that two people of any marginalized gender
Speaker 1: have names speak to each other about something other than
Speaker 1: a man for at least a two line exchange of dialogue.
Speaker 1: Most movies can't get you there, Nor was the first
Speaker 1: four minutes of this episode getting listen, it does happen,
Speaker 1: It does happen. I just was. I'm so nerv us.
Speaker 1: I know it's going to happen at least once where
Speaker 1: I'm like, Also, naming them Daniel and Mark does not
Speaker 1: help me, Like, I'm just like a great the two
Speaker 1: most generic British guy names to describe the two most
Speaker 1: generous British guy actor. Like, this is just it's not
Speaker 1: going to be good. However, we have so today we're
Speaker 1: talking about Bridget jones diary. It's been a popular request
Speaker 1: really since the show has existed. It's, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of an early auts rom com staple, and you know,
Speaker 1: it took us five years, but here we are, and
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for our guest today. Yes, she is
Speaker 1: a TV producer and her book Notes from the Bathroom
Speaker 1: Line comes out March sixteen. It's Amy Solomon. Hello, thank you,
Speaker 1: this is so flun Sorry for really dragging out that intro.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved every second of it. Welcome,
Speaker 1: thank you for bringing this movie. What is your What
Speaker 1: is your history with Bridget Jones? I guess this we're
Speaker 1: covering the first movie, but in general with the cannon
Speaker 1: of Bridget Jones. Um. I I don't know that I
Speaker 1: had ever seen this. I do think i'd seen parts
Speaker 1: because some some scenes I was like, oh okay, But
Speaker 1: I guess I think my history is just that my
Speaker 1: mom is so horny for these guys, like just oh
Speaker 1: my god, these are her guys. Moms know the difference.
Speaker 1: I called her last night and said we were talking
Speaker 1: about it today and made her. I was like, ultimately,
Speaker 1: if you had to pick Colin Firth or Hugh Grant,
Speaker 1: she couldn't do it. She got all flustered. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I kind of wonder if we were like, who are
Speaker 1: like two random British guys that we would do this
Speaker 1: for today, because it's like, who would like my child
Speaker 1: be like, what is the difference between these men? It
Speaker 1: would be like Robert Pattinson and some mother guy where
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Nicholas Holt, so he would
Speaker 1: be in my top two. Dude, if you put Robert
Speaker 1: Pattinson and Nicholas Holt on screen, we would be like
Speaker 1: frothing to the ends of the earth and are and
Speaker 1: like the next generation could be like, Um, I don't
Speaker 1: I see two identical men? You know? Is this the
Speaker 1: only you know what I was? I meant to look
Speaker 1: this up? Is this the only movie they've ever been
Speaker 1: in together? Colin and Hugh they were in love actually together? Okay,
Speaker 1: they're both in the Bridget Jones sequel Edge of Reason. Um,
Speaker 1: there's got to be sorry if I'm being like unreasonable here,
Speaker 1: I'm just like it was. It really was like so
Speaker 1: confusing to me, So I think what the movie should
Speaker 1: be this Bridget Jones has to choose between Alfred Molina
Speaker 1: and Paddington and then at the end they're like, let's
Speaker 1: be Polly beautiful a house together. That would be so nice.
Speaker 1: I'm also seeing that Hugh Grant and Colin Firth were
Speaker 1: possibly born the same week. It says, oh, I looked
Speaker 1: this up. It's the day A day apart. This was
Speaker 1: in the IMDb trivia. There's something like planet wise, going like,
Speaker 1: maybe it has nothing to do with looks and it's
Speaker 1: just a planetary thing going on, because they just give
Speaker 1: you the same spiritual vibe. They both they both recently
Speaker 1: turned sixty. Congrats to them. I honestly, you know, if
Speaker 1: I would, absolutely, you know, have a what is it?
Speaker 1: What's British dalliance with Hugh Grant? You prefer I'm a Colin.
Speaker 1: I prefer Colinn. See. I think I'm a hue. See
Speaker 1: I've read too much about he doesn't seem like the
Speaker 1: greatest guy. Oh no, I believe that it's called I
Speaker 1: could see. I mean again, I guess I'm just judging
Speaker 1: on strictly their movie characters. I'm like, oh, Colin Firth
Speaker 1: is probably a family man and Hugh Grant is probably not.
Speaker 1: I would highly recommend a foray into the Hugh Grant
Speaker 1: personal life Wikipedia. It is unbelievable. Caitlin, Also, I am
Speaker 1: as devoted to the Paddington universe as you are. Maybe
Speaker 1: not as devoted because you're the queen of it. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, But in that way, I'm a huge girl.
Speaker 1: But now that I didn't know that about Colin auditioning
Speaker 1: for Paddington's voice. Yeah. He in fact, not only did
Speaker 1: he audition, I think they recorded basically all of Paddington's
Speaker 1: dialogue until they like realized it just wasn't going to
Speaker 1: really work out with just the way his voice sounded
Speaker 1: was going to be too confusing. To Jamie, this is sorry.
Speaker 1: I meantime, I was like, I'm going to let the
Speaker 1: girls talk about Paddington's I'm in Hugh Grant's personal life
Speaker 1: section on Wikipedia, and it is so long. I will
Speaker 1: summarize it for you that basically he had these two
Speaker 1: wives or or like intense relationships where he basically flip
Speaker 1: flopped between them and would have a baby with one
Speaker 1: and then a baby with the other, and then to
Speaker 1: marry the one, and it's unbelievable. It's too much to
Speaker 1: fully get into here, but I highly recommend that. Also,
Speaker 1: his name is Hugh John Mungo Grant. His second middle
Speaker 1: name is Mungo, which is very British to me, very
Speaker 1: oh yeah, like Mungo Jerry from Cats. That was exactly
Speaker 1: what I thought it. Why aren't Colin Firth and Hugh
Speaker 1: Grant in the movie Cats huge missed opportunity? If you
Speaker 1: ask me, they would be like unique, I mean, everyone's
Speaker 1: bad in that movie, but they would be like uniquely
Speaker 1: bad in a way that would be really fun. I
Speaker 1: feel like Hugh gret could probably almost pull it off.
Speaker 1: Colin Firth, I don't know. I don't know, he might.
Speaker 1: He would be like Pierce Browsnan trying to sing in
Speaker 1: Mamma Mia. Pierce Brosny is iconic in Mamma Mia because
Speaker 1: I feel like Pierce Browsney knows in Mamma Mia that
Speaker 1: he cannot haul a note, but he's just like karaoke
Speaker 1: committing it at twelve. It's amazing how many of those
Speaker 1: movies have you guys done. We've just done the first one.
Speaker 1: Although I feel like there's now that I've seen Mamma Mia,
Speaker 1: here we go again. I feel like there is a
Speaker 1: fair amount of discourse at Yeah, and we love to
Speaker 1: cover a share a movie always always a bonus and
Speaker 1: it's the superior Mama me a movie because Fernando is present, true, true,
Speaker 1: thank you. Anyway, should we talk about the actual movie
Speaker 1: Bridget Jones Diary? Yes? Sorry, Caitlin, what is your history
Speaker 1: with Bridget Um? I saw it like right after it
Speaker 1: came out, which was late or no, I guess mid
Speaker 1: two one. The only thing I remembered about the actual
Speaker 1: like plot of the movie was the end when Colin
Speaker 1: Firth sees the diary, sees all the like stuff she
Speaker 1: wrote in it about how she hates him, and then
Speaker 1: he leaves. Then he's like, just kidding, I went out
Speaker 1: to buy you a new diary. And that's the only
Speaker 1: thing I remembered. Isn't that the first time we see
Speaker 1: the diary? Um, I think you see like little glimpses
Speaker 1: of it throughout. But I felt like at the very
Speaker 1: end of the movie is the first time she sits
Speaker 1: down and like writes it her diary. It's called Bridget Jones, right,
Speaker 1: I feel like we get most of the diary is
Speaker 1: like a d R voiceover. Yeah, sorry, what am I?
Speaker 1: I'm fired from Hollywood? I have no no a d
Speaker 1: R far the more technical term. Also, we are recording
Speaker 1: at one PM. But I did pour some Pino griggio
Speaker 1: into a cup because I'm like, we're talking about Bridget Jones.
Speaker 1: It's one pm on a Monday, and yet here we are.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been in quarantine. Wait. One more thing
Speaker 1: I learned in the trivia online was that British people
Speaker 1: blamed they blamed Bridget Jones sales of chardonnay going down.
Speaker 1: Whoa because she was like this sad Zack who, Well,
Speaker 1: we need to get into this because quote unquote sad
Speaker 1: Zack who like chardinary and then the sales went down
Speaker 1: in the years after the movie came out. That's really funny.
Speaker 1: And also I don't know, like I know that movies
Speaker 1: influids sales, but I feel like usually it's an overstatement
Speaker 1: where they're like et saved Reese's pieces, and like, first
Speaker 1: of all, I don't care, and second of all, it
Speaker 1: sounds like an overstatement. Um, Bridget, It's just like how
Speaker 1: millennials are killing the diamond industry, like Bridget Jones is
Speaker 1: killing the chardonnay industry. It was like, leave her alone.
Speaker 1: My whole thing with this movie is leave Bridget Jones alone.
Speaker 1: Um My, um, what's your history? My history is I
Speaker 1: think pretty close to Amy's. Like I think I've seen
Speaker 1: this movie, but also I'm not totally sure that I've
Speaker 1: seen this movie. I definitely cultural osmosis, I knew what happen,
Speaker 1: but I also like going in, I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: remember if she ends up with anyone at the end.
Speaker 1: I don't remember kind of where it. I don't I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, but I know that I've taken a lot
Speaker 1: of Bridget genes and through cultural osmosis, and I have
Speaker 1: a lot more complicated thoughts on the movie and like
Speaker 1: the property in general than I thought I was, So
Speaker 1: I'm excited to talk about it. Yeah, well let's do that,
Speaker 1: shall we. Okay, So here's the recap. Bridget Jones, who,
Speaker 1: of course is Renee's Salwager, who is not British, but
Speaker 1: she does. And I'm no expert by any means, but
Speaker 1: I think she does a convincing enough English accent that
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, is Renee Sellwager one
Speaker 1: of those like British actors who just always gets cast
Speaker 1: in American roles And I just didn't know this about her,
Speaker 1: and I like looked it up and she is, in
Speaker 1: fact American, but I was like, doing a pretty good job.
Speaker 1: I guess people were really mad when she got cast
Speaker 1: because it was such an iconic British gal from the books,
Speaker 1: but then people had to admit she really pulled it off,
Speaker 1: actually got nominated for an Oscar. I know, it's so
Speaker 1: bizarre that we're so cool with British actors doing American accents,
Speaker 1: but it's the second American actor as a British accent.
Speaker 1: Were like, that is unbelievable. It's like, no offense, England,
Speaker 1: we have more actors, our country is bigger, so make
Speaker 1: space for random American white girls doing British accents that
Speaker 1: are pretty convincing. I thought, yeah, I was Genuinely I
Speaker 1: assumed the same thing Kalin, that she was British but
Speaker 1: played American often, just like I mean, god, I feel
Speaker 1: like every popular American actress is secretly Australian. So like
Speaker 1: whatever I thought it was, really I was really impressed.
Speaker 1: And then I looked up on that horrible website Cora
Speaker 1: dot com, where it's like basically Yahoo answers too, and
Speaker 1: I was like, do people like Renee Zellwigger's accent and
Speaker 1: Britet Jones And generally yes, some some British people say
Speaker 1: that it's a bit too posh for a middle class person,
Speaker 1: but then the others will excuse the fact that she's
Speaker 1: clearly trying to like change, She's trying to, like, you know,
Speaker 1: impress people and act wealthier than she is, so maybe
Speaker 1: a sense right, she's giving such a nuanced performance. Why
Speaker 1: didn't she get the oscar for bridget Jobs read that
Speaker 1: she also did the accent between takes, like, just on,
Speaker 1: since you stayed in character, which I have mixed feelings about.
Speaker 1: Really well, just I totally respect it to stay into it.
Speaker 1: I think that makes a lot of sense. But when
Speaker 1: you are on a set and someone's doing that, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's just talk normally. You know. I, well, I guess
Speaker 1: putting myself in her shoes, I'd be so afraid that
Speaker 1: I would lose it. Advice stop, that's my thing. I'd
Speaker 1: be like, I have to stay in it. What if
Speaker 1: it goes away? I also love when women even go
Speaker 1: two percent method, because men get away with the weirdest
Speaker 1: ship totally, and then the second of woman does something weird,
Speaker 1: they're like, she's difficult. On Barry, we we have all
Speaker 1: those guys who play the Chechens, and they were kind
Speaker 1: of during the pilot deciding like, are we going to
Speaker 1: stay in this accent between scenes? And Bill Hayter was
Speaker 1: kind of like, no, but that's also like it's pretty.
Speaker 1: They're doing a pretty you know, no ho Hank is
Speaker 1: a pretty goofy character, so it's it's a lot, but
Speaker 1: yeah he's a but yeah, I respect Renee for staying
Speaker 1: in it. For sure. I would be afraid that Hugh
Speaker 1: Grant would make fun of me. He seems like the
Speaker 1: type that would be like, okay, knock it off, but
Speaker 1: yeah respect um okay. So Bridget Jones has been single
Speaker 1: for thirty two years, which I guess is the movie's
Speaker 1: way of saying that she's thirty two years old. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: when you're a maybe you are a single. It's true
Speaker 1: her mom or her mom is always trying to set
Speaker 1: her up with someone, and this year, at a holiday party,
Speaker 1: her mother tries to set her up with Mark Darcy
Speaker 1: that's Colin Firth and uh, she's actually interested in him,
Speaker 1: but he is not interested in her, and she overhears
Speaker 1: him saying some very mean things about her, and she
Speaker 1: realizes that if she doesn't make some changes soon, she's
Speaker 1: gonna be alone forever or end up like Glenn Close
Speaker 1: in Fatal Attraction, which I love I have a whole
Speaker 1: but like I love that you see Bridget Jones like
Speaker 1: part of her insecurity is stemming from the media she's consuming,
Speaker 1: Like if only she could have listened to the bed plcast.
Speaker 1: I know, especially because in our episode on Fatal Attraction
Speaker 1: we talk about what a like societal and cultural impact
Speaker 1: that movie had, and like everyone who saw it was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, women are so unstable and they're gonna
Speaker 1: kill me. I very rarely see like a had her
Speaker 1: own woman on screen and be like I could save her.
Speaker 1: But that's how I feel about Bridget Jones. I was like,
Speaker 1: I wish we could just hang out with her and
Speaker 1: her friends twenty years ago, right. Um. So then in
Speaker 1: her diary, which she is in theory writing in throughout
Speaker 1: the movie, which we mostly get through like her voiceover narration,
Speaker 1: she makes a list of what she wants to accomplish,
Speaker 1: which is to lose weight, to find a nice boyfriend,
Speaker 1: and to stop fantasizing about her boss, Daniel Cleaver and
Speaker 1: that is Hugh Grant. And then so we see her
Speaker 1: at work she has a job in publishing. We also
Speaker 1: meet her friends. Jude Shahza is that her name? I
Speaker 1: guess I was curious about Shaw's question mark. She seemed fun,
Speaker 1: but she only but she only shows up to say fuck.
Speaker 1: So she says fun fun fun funck um and then
Speaker 1: Tom that's like their friend group. So then Bridget starts
Speaker 1: flirting with Daniel at work, and by that I mean
Speaker 1: her boss begins to sexually harass her in the workplace email. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, MSN email representation. My mom feels
Speaker 1: so seen right now. Um. I mean there's so much
Speaker 1: bushemy test in this movie of like, if Steve Bushemy
Speaker 1: is your boss sending this email? Um, are we okay
Speaker 1: with it? No? We're not. Seriously ah So, then the
Speaker 1: following night is this big launch event for their publishing
Speaker 1: company's new book, Kafka's Motorbike. Any Funny, Any funny? Um?
Speaker 1: And she's like, Okay, I'm gonna go there. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be fabulous, but I'm going to ignore Daniel because she's
Speaker 1: playing hard to get. And then who shows up to
Speaker 1: this event but Mark Darcy and also the real Salomon
Speaker 1: Rushdie playing I did not realize that. That's why I
Speaker 1: like it. It's pretty amazing. There's also I guess in
Speaker 1: that scene there's there's like a whole pride and prejudice
Speaker 1: thing that we can talk about in a bit about this,
Speaker 1: But I guess that Helen Fielding, who are like is
Speaker 1: Bridget Jones and wrote Bridget Jones really loved the Pride
Speaker 1: and Prejudice mini series that starred Colin Firth, and I
Speaker 1: guess whoever the other guy in that series is appears
Speaker 1: in the movie in a small role at several times,
Speaker 1: and she was like just a huge Pride and Prejudice
Speaker 1: mini series stand. So they're all over the place. It's
Speaker 1: all connected. The real Id and Prejudice heads love that
Speaker 1: mini series. Yeah, that's they're big, like over the movies
Speaker 1: or any adaptation. That's their thing. I should watch it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm like, I'm a basic. I've seen the Kia
Speaker 1: Knightley one and I'm like cool and then I was
Speaker 1: strapped to a table and forced to read it in
Speaker 1: ninth grade. But other than that, well, isn't isn't Hugh
Speaker 1: Grant in Sense and Sensibility like the other big Austin
Speaker 1: like major motion picture adaptation. Oh, Gemma, Gemma Jones is
Speaker 1: also in it? Who plays bridgets mom? Yeah, there's like
Speaker 1: so much did sentence? Yeah, sentence Sensibility would have come
Speaker 1: out before this. Yeah. I think I'm pretty sure that
Speaker 1: Helen Fielding like was really deliberately being like anyone who's
Speaker 1: been in a Jane Austen adaptation. Free for all welcome.
Speaker 1: It is more of a I mean, we can get
Speaker 1: into this, but it's more of a like there's slight
Speaker 1: homages to pride prejudice, it's not really that, it's not
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't find that it's really based
Speaker 1: on it. Yeah. Besides, there's a character named Darcy and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Yeah. I read like the list of
Speaker 1: like direct references, but they are all kind of more
Speaker 1: like homage e than actual plot like adaptation. Yeah. Anyway,
Speaker 1: so Mark Darcy is at this book event and you
Speaker 1: can tell that he's like, hm, wait a minute, maybe
Speaker 1: there is something to this Bridget Jones. But then Hugh
Speaker 1: Grant swoops in and takes her out to dinner, and
Speaker 1: it turns out that he and Colin Firth used to
Speaker 1: be good friends. Sorry, I am going to switch between
Speaker 1: their character names and the actor's names. Um I will,
Speaker 1: it won't help. But it turns out that used to
Speaker 1: be good friends until according to Daniel A K. Hugh
Speaker 1: Grant Mark a K. Colin Firth had an affair with
Speaker 1: Daniel Cleaver's fiance. Then Bridget and Daniel kiss, they have sex,
Speaker 1: they become an item. Um, but then he starts to
Speaker 1: get a bit dodgy and he has to bail on
Speaker 1: this like family friends party that they were supposed to
Speaker 1: go to. But you'll never guess who is at the
Speaker 1: party who. It's Mark Darcy and he's also we've seen
Speaker 1: him with this woman, Natasha, who is a colleague of his.
Speaker 1: They're both lawyers or barristers, which I guess is a lawyer.
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't, I don't know. Such a good word.
Speaker 1: It's really good. And then when you find out whether
Speaker 1: it actually means, you're like, oh, but anyway, So this
Speaker 1: Natasha woman is with him and she likes him, but
Speaker 1: I was getting confused as to like whether or not
Speaker 1: they were ever romantically involved at any point in this movie.
Speaker 1: Very confusing. There's right, okay, at that party earlier, she
Speaker 1: says something to the effect of like I'm working on it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like she's And then at the end, Colin First's dad
Speaker 1: is like, maybe she'll be our daughter in law, and
Speaker 1: it's like, does that mean they're together? I think they
Speaker 1: are like supposed to be almost engaged, if not engaged.
Speaker 1: The other thing that confused me in this movie is
Speaker 1: the other woman for Booth Hugh Grant and Colin Firth
Speaker 1: part look really similar, and so like I had to
Speaker 1: I don't usually when I'm prepping for rom com episodes,
Speaker 1: I don't usually need to watch the movie twice. But
Speaker 1: so many of the key players in this movie have
Speaker 1: the same haircut that I was like, wait a second,
Speaker 1: because there's like Lisa Lisa, and then there's Natasha, and
Speaker 1: they have the same two thousand one hairt Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, which can be easily solved by putting a
Speaker 1: wig on one of them. Like, no one on the
Speaker 1: set was like, the two women have the same hair,
Speaker 1: like it's it's so confusing, so confusing. This is also
Speaker 1: what happens when there are just too many white people
Speaker 1: in a movie. Problem easily solved by diversifying your cast
Speaker 1: even a little, like make your movie better and help
Speaker 1: the audience. England is a diverse place. It's just yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but yes, the two the two the two other women
Speaker 1: have the same hair and so I was also confused
Speaker 1: about what was going on there. But I think that
Speaker 1: by the end, at the beginning, she's working on it.
Speaker 1: By the end, they're engaged, and I'm assuming that there's
Speaker 1: some like cut scenes or something, because it's really right
Speaker 1: skip over like the developing of their relationship quite a bit.
Speaker 1: They're at least in a relationship enough that they're like
Speaker 1: in a canoe together, which is kind of intimate, right,
Speaker 1: but Bridget and Bridget and Hugh Grant or in separate canoes.
Speaker 1: That's how you know it's not gonna last true. And
Speaker 1: in that scene he makes a Titanic reference because he says,
Speaker 1: I'm King of the World. Amazing, and we're like, wow,
Speaker 1: he is a keeper, but I mean to tie everything
Speaker 1: back together again. In Love actually another movie that both
Speaker 1: of those actors are in. We see, oh no, it's
Speaker 1: not calling Firth. It's Liam Neeson. Never mind, it's Liam
Speaker 1: Neeson who's watching Titanic with his like stepson, And for
Speaker 1: a second I thought it was calling Firth. But that
Speaker 1: is not who that is anyway. Too many old white guys, Okay.
Speaker 1: So Bridget goes back to London and discovers that Daniel
Speaker 1: is cheating on her with this younger woman from like
Speaker 1: the New York office of their publishing company, and not
Speaker 1: only that, they are engaged. So then Bridget tries to
Speaker 1: get her life together. She tells Daniel off, she quits
Speaker 1: her job, she gets a new job in television at
Speaker 1: a new station, um which doesn't seem to be any
Speaker 1: better than her old job because her new boss also
Speaker 1: sexually harasses her. I know, I was like, god, this
Speaker 1: is like yikes. There are elements of this story where
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, that's so depressing, but also like reflective
Speaker 1: of life. It's like, oh, what fresh hell, I'm going
Speaker 1: to career change because my first boss was making my
Speaker 1: life impossible and now I'm going to go to a
Speaker 1: new career or my life will be impossible. But in
Speaker 1: a different way. I know it's it's not the most optimistic.
Speaker 1: So then she goes to a dinner party where Mark
Speaker 1: Darcy just happens to be and he's everywhere, and which,
Speaker 1: like this movie, is Colin first character either very coincidentally
Speaker 1: being in the same place as Bridget Jones or deliberately
Speaker 1: showing up unannounced to where she is. I guess I would.
Speaker 1: I feel like, okay, if we did like a full
Speaker 1: investigative thing into like Colin firth entrance scenes, I feel
Speaker 1: like that's something you see a lot of him being
Speaker 1: like oh hello, you know, like uh huh, he knows
Speaker 1: you're there first. He's like, I guess it's not even
Speaker 1: a scene entrance because he's just he's been there. You're
Speaker 1: suddenly there with him. He's been and then he just
Speaker 1: like kind of turns around and he's like, OI, I
Speaker 1: feel like a cross genres. This is pretty common. Well.
Speaker 1: I took it upon myself to watch both sequels to
Speaker 1: this movie briefly ever know um, and the same thing
Speaker 1: keeps happening with his character in particular throughout and but
Speaker 1: also like it happens also with Hugh Grant more and more,
Speaker 1: like it's just I mean, I do think that there
Speaker 1: is I mean we've we've kind of talked about this before,
Speaker 1: like the whatever, how it's supposed to seem inherently romantic
Speaker 1: when ah, when a man shows up unannounced without checking
Speaker 1: in about how you feel first, because Hugh Grant's character
Speaker 1: does it in this movie too. He shows up at
Speaker 1: her house assuming that she's alone on her birthday and
Speaker 1: then it's like, oh, I got my face. I guess
Speaker 1: that you're you have a life, and I just never
Speaker 1: considered that before. Also, she's had this she for all
Speaker 1: that is very sad how they make her out life
Speaker 1: out to be. She has a great group of pals,
Speaker 1: she has a support system, like totally people are I'm
Speaker 1: just like, I just wish Bridget Jones had someone in
Speaker 1: her life that was like, you're great, relax, like it's
Speaker 1: all good. You're you're a normal person and you're figuring
Speaker 1: it out. Stop why are you? Why are these identical
Speaker 1: men yelling at you all the time? They're both so terrible.
Speaker 1: I have a hole will get into why all the
Speaker 1: reasons that they're both such tracks like different flavors of toxic. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Mark Darcy is at this like dinner party with
Speaker 1: a bunch of other couples, and this is the scene
Speaker 1: where he's like, Okay, Bridget, I know I've been like
Speaker 1: really mean to you up until this point, but I
Speaker 1: just want you to know that I actually like you
Speaker 1: very much, and I like you just the way you are.
Speaker 1: And she's very taken aback and confused by this also
Speaker 1: because she's like, but I hate him. I think this
Speaker 1: is the part that and I guess because I am
Speaker 1: admittedly not a Jane austen Head. So Jane austen Heads
Speaker 1: sound off in the comments that I'm totally off faith here,
Speaker 1: but it's this plot point that I feel like is
Speaker 1: especially Jane austen E and that it feels like something
Speaker 1: that is weird to be happening in this century where
Speaker 1: I like, I feel like there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: female protagonists written by women in the eighteen hundreds who
Speaker 1: like create emotional intimacy, but it's still in a pretty
Speaker 1: toxic way with a pretty toxic person. I'm thinking of
Speaker 1: like Pride and Prejudice and Jane Air of like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: this guy has been nothing but cruel to me, but
Speaker 1: he's only cruel because of his own ship, So I
Speaker 1: guess I forgive him. I feel like that's like a
Speaker 1: common thing. And then Bridget Jones like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I kind of is expecting, like Bridget Jones like the
Speaker 1: writing to comment on it a little more, but it
Speaker 1: kind of just happens, right, because well, like the one
Speaker 1: centuries version of that is like men nagging women directly
Speaker 1: to their face as a flirtation tactic, but not like
Speaker 1: just like it's very old fashioned nagging that Colin Firth
Speaker 1: is doing a right. He doesn't really ever speak to
Speaker 1: her on this till this scene, right, he just kind
Speaker 1: of glares at her and says something very awful about
Speaker 1: her to his mom at that party in the beginning, right,
Speaker 1: So how does he when he says as you are,
Speaker 1: and also he like insults her forty times and then
Speaker 1: he's like, but all these negative qualities that I just
Speaker 1: made you feel bad about is why you're not like
Speaker 1: the other girls. And you're just like, oh gosh, I
Speaker 1: want more for her. It makes my head hurt. Bridget's great.
Speaker 1: She should just she should just get a cat and
Speaker 1: you know, live her best single life. Keep watching Frasier.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I that was another. I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: feeling lonely and turning on Frasier energy. Been there, been there.
Speaker 1: There's so many elements. I mean, we'll get into it more,
Speaker 1: but like, there's so many elements of Bridget that I
Speaker 1: really love. And I feel like it's like you don't
Speaker 1: often get to see women personally and privately dealing with
Speaker 1: their insecurities, even though a lot of their insecurities come
Speaker 1: from a very toxic place. But it's like Bridget doesn't
Speaker 1: really put other people down very much. She's just really
Speaker 1: hard on herself, and there that I don't know. There
Speaker 1: are moments in the movie where I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's she's like, she's so wrong. But I also felt
Speaker 1: the exact same way at different points about like my
Speaker 1: body or a bad relationship, or I just that the
Speaker 1: plot went differently. I don't know. I love Bridget and
Speaker 1: the plot is a disaster. Yeah, I don't know that
Speaker 1: the that the movie thinks she's wrong about those things,
Speaker 1: right right right Bridget? Um? Okay, So after he professes
Speaker 1: his feelings for her, she runs into him again when
Speaker 1: she's covering this um kind of high profile court case
Speaker 1: for her work, and he's he's a barrister defending the
Speaker 1: people in this case, and he helps her get an
Speaker 1: exclusive interview with them, and then she cooks a birthday
Speaker 1: feast for her friends, which is like make them cook
Speaker 1: for you if it's your birthday anyway. Um, but guess
Speaker 1: who shows up at her door unannounced? It's Mark Darcy.
Speaker 1: And guess who else shows up at her door during
Speaker 1: this dinner unannounced. It's Daniel Cleaver and they both want
Speaker 1: to is Bridget. So what happens next is they have
Speaker 1: a fist fight in the street that lasts for the
Speaker 1: next three minutes of screen time. It's really long, so long.
Speaker 1: I do like the scene where Tom runs into the
Speaker 1: restaurant and it's like there's that was fun. So Mark
Speaker 1: wins the fight, but Bridget is not impressed with him
Speaker 1: nor with Daniel, so she kind of goes off, and
Speaker 1: then she spends the holidays with her mom and dad,
Speaker 1: who are headed to Mark Darcy's families like holiday lunch
Speaker 1: or something like that, and bridgets like, I'm not going.
Speaker 1: But then her mom was like, by the way, it
Speaker 1: wasn't Mark who had an affair with Daniel's fiance. It
Speaker 1: was Daniel who had an affair with Marks his wife.
Speaker 1: So then bridgets like, oh my god, I had it
Speaker 1: all wrong. So she drives like a bat out of
Speaker 1: hell marks this. I'm like, even if that is all true, Bridget,
Speaker 1: you were still his second choice, Like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And that does not redeem him for any of the
Speaker 1: other stuff. Having experienced pain does not mean that you
Speaker 1: can just be a fucking asshole to anyone you're romantically
Speaker 1: interested in until you die. He's like forty Oh my god, sorry, okay.
Speaker 1: So then so at this little luncheon or whatever, she
Speaker 1: professes her feelings for Mark Darcy, but then his father
Speaker 1: announces that Mark is moving to New York and that
Speaker 1: Natasha is going with him, and that they are like,
Speaker 1: now betrothed. So he goes to New York for a bit,
Speaker 1: and then Bridget is all sad and then her friends
Speaker 1: are like, hey, we're going to take you to Paris.
Speaker 1: But right is there lead thing who shows up again,
Speaker 1: but Mark Darcy. Right when she's about to go on
Speaker 1: vacation to Paris. It's like, screw him, go to Paris,
Speaker 1: but she decides to stay behind and she's like, okay,
Speaker 1: let's hang out. But then he sees her diary in
Speaker 1: which she has written about how awful he is and
Speaker 1: how much she hates him. So then he leaves. Bridget
Speaker 1: goes running after him in her underwear in the snow.
Speaker 1: This scene, I was like, oh, I've seen this in
Speaker 1: a million clip compilations, and I mean, listen. Rene Salwagar
Speaker 1: plays the hell out of it. It's fun. The plot
Speaker 1: point itself not great, Rene's Salwager's performance in the moment,
Speaker 1: I have no choice but to enjoy it. Sure, And
Speaker 1: she finally catches up with him, and she's like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm so sor but he's like, no, it's fine.
Speaker 1: I was just buying you a new diary that doesn't
Speaker 1: contain all manner of vitriol directed at me specifically so
Speaker 1: that you have a fresh start with me, and then
Speaker 1: they kiss and that is how the movie and beautiful
Speaker 1: no notes, Let's take a quick break and we will
Speaker 1: come back to discuss, and we're back. Um. I feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's so much to talk about. But I feel like,
Speaker 1: because all the men in this movie get to lie, lie, lie,
Speaker 1: lie lie and experience kind of really no significant consequence
Speaker 1: for it, that a better ending is at the end.
Speaker 1: Rene Zellweger says, I'm lying, I'm from Texas and she's
Speaker 1: the big twist and she's not even British. And then
Speaker 1: all the men need to deal with the fact that
Speaker 1: this is the first time conceivably they they're being deceived.
Speaker 1: No man has ever deceived in this film, and it's like,
Speaker 1: on what ground there, where? Where? Where shall we start? Well?
Speaker 1: I think the very nature the big issue with the
Speaker 1: movie is she is a fresh faced, thirty two year
Speaker 1: old Rene's Eltwigger is the loveliest, most beautiful little gal,
Speaker 1: and the central tenet of the movie is she is
Speaker 1: a fat, fat, sad sack. I can't even say it
Speaker 1: because it's so preposterous. She do you read she read
Speaker 1: she gained twenty five pounds for this Yeah she is skinny, yes, correct,
Speaker 1: It's so there. I mean, the fat phobia in this
Speaker 1: movie is so rampant, and I feel like it speaks
Speaker 1: to I mean, it's like it's frustrating because it's like
Speaker 1: you can't even really behold it to this movie specifically
Speaker 1: because that is so early two thousands and nineties culture
Speaker 1: is it's all fat shaming women. I also feel like
Speaker 1: they're there's this whole There's a YouTube channel that I
Speaker 1: really love called be kind Rewind that has like a
Speaker 1: whole she has a whole video about how when like
Speaker 1: you know, Western beauty standard very thin Hollywood actresses put
Speaker 1: on weight or alter their appearance in some way, they
Speaker 1: are more likely to be rewarded for their performance. And
Speaker 1: it's like, what a risk for you to have a
Speaker 1: normal woman's body, and like what an amazing thing. And
Speaker 1: I feel like Renee Zellweger, I don't know, it's so
Speaker 1: hard because it's like I really love Renee Zellweger's performance
Speaker 1: in this movie. I think she is like doing an
Speaker 1: amazing job, but it is like, I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: so it's icky that like a woman having a very
Speaker 1: normal body is considered like brave in any way, and
Speaker 1: that it's like, oh, we need to reward this like
Speaker 1: actress for looking normal, And then the whole character, like
Speaker 1: you're saying, Amy is like Bridget, I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's so hard because it's like you can see
Speaker 1: Bridget so many different ways, Like I understand why she
Speaker 1: was a popular character because women are so encouraged to
Speaker 1: be like really hard on themselves and like hate their bodies,
Speaker 1: and I think that the only way out of their
Speaker 1: life as it is is to like be in a relationship,
Speaker 1: and Bridget is like navigating that and that's interesting to see.
Speaker 1: But then, in the same way, like you're saying earlier, Amy,
Speaker 1: it's like the movie seems to think that all of
Speaker 1: her insecurities and all these like toxic thoughts that she
Speaker 1: has about herself are correct, and it's like, uh, I
Speaker 1: don't know. And then I mean, I think another reason
Speaker 1: this movie was such a hit and this character was
Speaker 1: already so popular before the movie came out, and that
Speaker 1: she's I mean, she's just a relatable rom calm heroine
Speaker 1: in the sense that like and like she's actually relatable too,
Speaker 1: because I feel like a lot of romcom heroines that
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be really like relating to, you're like, um,
Speaker 1: this is Jennifer Garner who works at a museum, Like
Speaker 1: I don't know this woman, or it's like, oh, Sandra
Speaker 1: Bullock tripped and I tripped sometimes, so therefore and I'm
Speaker 1: in the CIA. Like this one's like, oh, she's a
Speaker 1: kind of bumbling, kind of sad gal who has a
Speaker 1: real job, seem she has vices, you know, she drinks
Speaker 1: and she smokes cigarettes, and she she's not good at
Speaker 1: public speaking, and she kind of makes a fool of
Speaker 1: herself sometimes and just yeah, some of them more I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of it is still rooted in some
Speaker 1: pretty like trophy romcom stuff because she also prop follows
Speaker 1: quite a bit and she works in publishing, like stuff
Speaker 1: going on. But it's like I felt like generally, especially
Speaker 1: for this time, she was like more relatable. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: there there there's like moments where I'm like, am I
Speaker 1: reading too far into this? Probably? Usually, but there I
Speaker 1: liked that like kind of the like subtlety of like
Speaker 1: she wants to stop drinking, smoking and eating delicious food
Speaker 1: because she thinks that she should hate herself for doing
Speaker 1: those things when in reality she seems to like enjoy them.
Speaker 1: And it's like I don't know, like I just I
Speaker 1: really related with that of like, oh, she enjoys eating
Speaker 1: food because she is a person human and she likes
Speaker 1: like drinking with her friends because she's a person, and
Speaker 1: she feels that she shouldn't because of all this you
Speaker 1: know ship we're told of like you have to look
Speaker 1: and behave a very particular way. Yeah, the things that
Speaker 1: make her relatable to audiences are the same thing things
Speaker 1: that she like punishes herself for, and the movie like
Speaker 1: encourages her to punish herself for the other thing. Like
Speaker 1: the other part of what makes her kind of a
Speaker 1: sad sack or a person who we as the audience
Speaker 1: are meant to think is sad is that she's single.
Speaker 1: Like the movie frames being a single woman as being
Speaker 1: pathetic and age to ever exist, right, And this is
Speaker 1: like this is a very common thing, especially like in
Speaker 1: the rum comm genre, especially of this era, where like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, if you're not partnered off with a
Speaker 1: man because of course you're hetero and you're older than
Speaker 1: like wow, how pathetic And like she's feeling she's like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I'm so pathetic and everyone thinks I'm
Speaker 1: pathetic and everyone's trying to set me up with someone
Speaker 1: so that I'm not pathetic. But oh my god, it's
Speaker 1: just like that is like who It's like that is horrible,
Speaker 1: and we see that movies all the time. But then
Speaker 1: on the other end, like I also the fact that
Speaker 1: like she is experiencing loneliness in a way that like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like there's two things going
Speaker 1: on with her at all times. There's like it does
Speaker 1: seem like her character really does want a meaningful relationship,
Speaker 1: but then on the other end, like she's constantly pushed
Speaker 1: into the arms of these fucking losers who are not
Speaker 1: nice to her because she's told that she's too old
Speaker 1: to like take her time to find someone who doesn't
Speaker 1: super suck. And it's like I did like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know, Like that opening scene with her is like
Speaker 1: so iconic. She's watching Frasier and she's like kind of
Speaker 1: drunk and kind of bummed out and kind of lonely,
Speaker 1: and I don't even dislike that, Like there's most people
Speaker 1: have been there at some point. But then it's like
Speaker 1: the movie telling you that it's pathetic and it's not
Speaker 1: like just to how things are at different moments in
Speaker 1: your life. Yeah, well, the problem is she then is
Speaker 1: forced to go in this you know, the whole movie
Speaker 1: is the battle between the only two options seemingly right, Like,
Speaker 1: she doesn't meet other men and pass them up for
Speaker 1: these two guys. It's just the one her mom introduced
Speaker 1: her to and her moss and that's it, and she
Speaker 1: just has to pick one. And I feel like they're
Speaker 1: just even reading. It was interesting reading through the reviews
Speaker 1: of this movie at the time, because I think in
Speaker 1: two dozen one it seemed to be kind of like
Speaker 1: viewed as like this amazing step forward that these toxic
Speaker 1: relationships could happen around a normal woman over thirty, when
Speaker 1: like the reality is like, these toxic relationships shouldn't be
Speaker 1: pushed in any movie franchise, but whatever. Like the culture
Speaker 1: at this moment was so gaslight into thinking that characters
Speaker 1: that are Hugh Grant and Colin Firth's age would only
Speaker 1: go after women twenty years younger than them and would
Speaker 1: only do a fist fight after out like over the
Speaker 1: finnest woman of all time, And they're like, well, it's
Speaker 1: a woman who is a normal person, and she's like,
Speaker 1: she's a woman who's like closer to their age than normal,
Speaker 1: even though she's still ten years younger than them. Uh oh,
Speaker 1: she's only four years younger than than Mark Darcy, is she. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm talking about the actors, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's like it's not enough progress to be like,
Speaker 1: now we can have toxic relationships with everyday women, it's
Speaker 1: like right. Also, like just the okay, So there's that
Speaker 1: scene where she goes to the party that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be tarts and vicars, and no one gave her
Speaker 1: the news, and so she dresses up in the little
Speaker 1: like playboy bunny suit. She looks unbelievable. She's so hot.
Speaker 1: It's just so pre posterous that that's in this movie
Speaker 1: where she's supposed to be this like finally a real woman, Like,
Speaker 1: she looks so hot. Also, I found it very funny
Speaker 1: that that exact same plot point also happens in Legally Blonde,
Speaker 1: a movie that comes out the same year, because like
Speaker 1: both movies are a woman being told it's a costume party,
Speaker 1: showing up in a like playboy bunny outfit turns out
Speaker 1: it's not a costume party, and then has to like
Speaker 1: feel humiliated that she's in this very sexy costume. Okay, Also,
Speaker 1: why was that ever the theme for that party? Because
Speaker 1: she shows up and it's all sixty and seven year
Speaker 1: old people, Like, where are they really? Are they gonna
Speaker 1: go through with this? Yeah? At what point were they
Speaker 1: down for that? It's so bizarre. Oh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's really weird. I had forgotten that about legally blonde,
Speaker 1: and then only she and her dad didn't get the news.
Speaker 1: So he's dressed up the size it's like breezed or whatever. Unbelievable,
Speaker 1: very very strange. Yeah, So it's like we're supposed to
Speaker 1: think that, first of all, Rene's Elwigger is like a
Speaker 1: fat character, which and that that is inherently wrong by
Speaker 1: the movie standards, both of which are deeply flawed premises.
Speaker 1: I also like, this is a I forget if we've
Speaker 1: ever talked about this on this show, but a very
Speaker 1: specific grape I have as like and eating disorder head
Speaker 1: is when people are mentioning like numbers when it comes
Speaker 1: to wait in movies. It really bothers me because when
Speaker 1: I was younger, it was like a teen or a
Speaker 1: preteen hearing numbers was super like, oh, if I weigh
Speaker 1: over this number, or like if I weigh this number,
Speaker 1: I am bad, which takes into account absolutely nothing about
Speaker 1: an individual person. But it was like completely god like,
Speaker 1: there's this is so deprived think but like there's so
Speaker 1: much of my like teen eating disorder that I can
Speaker 1: attribute to an episode of Family Guy that it's so hot.
Speaker 1: But it was like because they were like, if you
Speaker 1: wait over this number, you are worthless. And if you
Speaker 1: are like I don't know, it's like if you're over
Speaker 1: a certain age, maybe you can be like clearly that's
Speaker 1: a joke, and it's like satire to an extent. But
Speaker 1: like when you're a kid and you hear Bridget Jones
Speaker 1: say I wait this much and I need to wait
Speaker 1: twenty less than that, I feel like that really does
Speaker 1: like get your kind of serious brain going in a
Speaker 1: bad way. I really. Catherine Cohen has an amazing joke
Speaker 1: about she went on a date with a guy and
Speaker 1: then he was like, come back to my place. You
Speaker 1: can ride on the pegs of my bike and she
Speaker 1: was like, no, I can't, and he was like it
Speaker 1: can fit up to a hundred pounds and she was like,
Speaker 1: you don't understand wait or math, she's the best. It's
Speaker 1: so I don't know any time I move we regardless
Speaker 1: of who the intended audiences, like, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of young girls who saw this movie in two thousand one,
Speaker 1: and it just I hate, like, on top of the
Speaker 1: fact that you're having like a major plat point be
Speaker 1: that a woman's worth is tied to her weight, saying
Speaker 1: which weight is invaluable is like, uh yeah, and the movie,
Speaker 1: I mean, the movie is obsessed with like how she
Speaker 1: looks her body size in the sense that like she's
Speaker 1: always putting herself down for her weight and her size.
Speaker 1: Other characters are doing the same thing. Nothing about that
Speaker 1: is challenged in any way. And yeah, it's just a
Speaker 1: very of the era. It's weird. And you guys talked
Speaker 1: about this before on the podcast, not out myself as
Speaker 1: a big fan, um, but but like they kind of
Speaker 1: hint like they're going to challenge it, but then they don't.
Speaker 1: Like it's like almost like if we present this, it counts,
Speaker 1: you know, because that horrible woman that that's in the
Speaker 1: bathroom that Hugh Grant has turns out, is engaged engaged
Speaker 1: to she goes, I wrote it down because it was
Speaker 1: so horrific. She goes, I thought you said she was
Speaker 1: thin about so it's coming from the mouth of like
Speaker 1: the villain, right, but then she's criticized for it for
Speaker 1: the whole movie, So you don't know that the movie's
Speaker 1: point of view is very confused. It's very murky. It's
Speaker 1: so because it's like they're the setup could do something
Speaker 1: interesting to like comment on how like I don't think
Speaker 1: it's un like it's hard to say it's unrealistic that
Speaker 1: Bridget Jones tearing her body to shreds and like being
Speaker 1: extremely critical of herself is unrealistic. But then but then
Speaker 1: it but then nothing happened. It's just like she she's right.
Speaker 1: I guess their answer would be that Colin Firth says,
Speaker 1: why I like you just the way you are? That
Speaker 1: would be what they're saying, is right anything, which her
Speaker 1: friends are like, wait a minute, he likes you the
Speaker 1: way you are, not twenty pounds lighter or whatever. They say.
Speaker 1: They're like, they think that is unbelievable because even her
Speaker 1: friends think of her that way. Kind of right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: according to that statement, Yeah, and you can like Galaxy
Speaker 1: brand that as well and be like, well, we know
Speaker 1: all of her friends are also very insecure in a
Speaker 1: lot of the same ways, and so there is which
Speaker 1: is like again, it's like that is not something that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen if like I know that whatever, if this
Speaker 1: was a movie targeted at our mom's basically of like,
Speaker 1: I know that my mom would hang out with her
Speaker 1: friends and they would you know, kind of like talk
Speaker 1: a lot about their insecurities and maybe not in a
Speaker 1: way that was helpful or healthy towards each other. But
Speaker 1: it's like it's a movie, you know, Like what's the point,
Speaker 1: you know, other than being like this, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just like, you have this huge opportunity to say
Speaker 1: something too a mostly female audience, so to say nothing
Speaker 1: and just be like, yeah, we're really fucked, aren't we.
Speaker 1: Here's a fantasy where you you're like married off to
Speaker 1: a toxic guy, but at least he's hot, Like it's
Speaker 1: just only horrible to you for many years. Yeah, Like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's so, I don't know. I wasn't expecting to love
Speaker 1: Bridget as much as I did. I'm really I mean,
Speaker 1: I really have rooting for her throughout and she does
Speaker 1: like managed to she does a lot of like pretty
Speaker 1: amazing things in this movie that I feel like the
Speaker 1: movie doesn't even really reward her for very much of Like,
Speaker 1: she completely pivots her career in the middle of the
Speaker 1: movie after she has this horrible experience with her boss,
Speaker 1: who you know, realistically that should have gotten him fired,
Speaker 1: although we know that rarely actually happens. But then she
Speaker 1: totally pivots her entire life, and I was like, wait
Speaker 1: a second, that's that's amazing, Like she becomes a TV
Speaker 1: producer and like, but then but now it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it just feels kind of strange that not
Speaker 1: a lot of like her victories and like what she
Speaker 1: does to change her predicament, Like it's immediately forgotten about
Speaker 1: the second one of the British guys enters the scene. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because the story, the trajectory of the story is not
Speaker 1: really focused on her career. It's all about the relationships
Speaker 1: with these two men, which I mean, is now the
Speaker 1: time to get into that. Well, let's take a quick
Speaker 1: break because there's about to be a lot and then
Speaker 1: we'll come right back. We're back, really really good. Before
Speaker 1: we get to the men, I did want to say
Speaker 1: that I guess again, this is like very I feel
Speaker 1: like movies of this time like these like early third
Speaker 1: wave feminism attempts at movie making, Like at very least,
Speaker 1: we do see a lot of women working, and we
Speaker 1: do know like any in high powered jobs. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: we know what they do. We know that they're generally
Speaker 1: pretty successful at what they do. We'll have a conversation
Speaker 1: about Bridget's mom in a bit like I was generally
Speaker 1: encouraged about like how much you see about women, and
Speaker 1: like Bridget, outside of her rocky start at the TV station,
Speaker 1: seems to be pretty good at what she does and
Speaker 1: seems to be like interested in what she's doing. Um,
Speaker 1: which is a very like it feels like crumbs now,
Speaker 1: But I was like, okay, movie, did you reading that
Speaker 1: Rene's elwigger worked at a publishing house for a month
Speaker 1: to research? No, Wow, that doesn't feel necessary even you
Speaker 1: really do not understand at all what she does for
Speaker 1: work in the movie. Does not feel necessary. No, but
Speaker 1: I read she worked at a publishing house for a month.
Speaker 1: She like did a disguise and something so that people
Speaker 1: couldn't tell who she was, and you know who she was.
Speaker 1: She was dating Jim Carrey at the time, and she
Speaker 1: had a framed picture of him on her desk, and
Speaker 1: people would be like, that's weird, but no one said
Speaker 1: anything that's extremely weird. So I don't know why Renee's
Speaker 1: elwigger Jim Carrey early two thousands relationship totally makes sense
Speaker 1: to me. But I'm like, you know what it. I
Speaker 1: get it, that makes sense, But yeah, I don't think you. Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know that she needed to go with that
Speaker 1: method and do that that little stint. Unfortunately, the movie
Speaker 1: does not have that much to do with her job
Speaker 1: for her career aspirations or really. I'm like, I couldn't
Speaker 1: tell you what her job was. She worked in publicity.
Speaker 1: She's like the publicity for the publishing house. I guess
Speaker 1: because he does that really demeaning line where he's like,
Speaker 1: you just come in and out with your memos and
Speaker 1: you don't know anything about what it's going on or whatever. Um.
Speaker 1: But no, you're totally right. They do have her. I
Speaker 1: never know her name, but to me, she's moaning myrtle
Speaker 1: her friend. Yes, oh my god, I didn't put that together.
Speaker 1: The character's name is Jude Dude. But she she they
Speaker 1: mentioned she has a big fancy job too. But then
Speaker 1: she calls crying from the bathroom about the guy. But
Speaker 1: she has a job. I guess where she's calling from,
Speaker 1: ding dong, Like, yeah, we do know what women do.
Speaker 1: It just never really comes into the plot outside of
Speaker 1: Bridget's career change, which I thought should have gotten a
Speaker 1: little bit more attention. Yeah, right, she has as a
Speaker 1: journalist who says, fuck, that's all we know. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then there's all those lady barristers. True, yes, I mean
Speaker 1: we only know them in the context of the other women,
Speaker 1: like you know, Colin for its other woman. But she
Speaker 1: is a lady barrister, that's true. And I will say
Speaker 1: barrister as often as possible from you're on out. Um. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's I was supposed to start with. Okay, I
Speaker 1: guess Daniel Cleaver is where I want to start a k.
Speaker 1: Hugh Grant Okay, Okay, here's everything that's wrong with him.
Speaker 1: He's a sexual harasser, big time time horrific, horrific, which like, okay,
Speaker 1: what what is baffling to me in that scenario is
Speaker 1: that he starts emailing her with like extremely sexually suggestive comments. Again,
Speaker 1: it's like a quick run of the Bishemy test is
Speaker 1: like it's a no, right, but you know, because the
Speaker 1: movie is like, but hey, it's Hugh Grant who's trying
Speaker 1: arming and cute, so it's fine, which, according to his
Speaker 1: personal life section, is also how Hugh Grant lives his life,
Speaker 1: so he's doing that. She does call him out for
Speaker 1: sexually harassing her, but it is framed as a joke
Speaker 1: because it's like her calling him out is part of
Speaker 1: the flirtation um, which sends a very harmful message that like, no,
Speaker 1: women are actually asking for it. They want to be
Speaker 1: sexually harassed, which is obviously horrendous. On top of that,
Speaker 1: he is a pathological liar. He is a gaslighter, he's
Speaker 1: a womanizer, he's a cheater. Like he's just he doesn't
Speaker 1: tell a single truth the entire movie. So between the
Speaker 1: two men, I would say he is the more toxic one. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: but but but that's such two thousand's movie a lot.
Speaker 1: If we're forced to put in it's like, well you
Speaker 1: have you legally, you're contractually obligated to be in a
Speaker 1: long term relationship with one of these assholes, and then
Speaker 1: it's just like damage control. It's so depressing. It's that
Speaker 1: classic like love triangle scenario where like a woman's caught
Speaker 1: between two men, both of them are damaged for different reasons,
Speaker 1: and it's a matter of like which one do I want?
Speaker 1: The vampire or the werewolf? Do I want emotional abuser
Speaker 1: or the man who's emotionally withholding I seem to decide
Speaker 1: that the love triangle belongs to pride and prejudice, and
Speaker 1: if you're going to do a love triangle, you have
Speaker 1: to say it's it's a adaptation of pride and prejudice,
Speaker 1: like there can be other triangles. Yeah, it's so frustrating,
Speaker 1: and I feel like there's like a few moments thrown
Speaker 1: in for Hugh Grant's character where you're supposed to be like,
Speaker 1: not that bad a guy, like I don't know, little
Speaker 1: insidious details like the fact that you are set up
Speaker 1: to think that he's going to make fun of bridgets underwear,
Speaker 1: which he does, but not in the way that she expects,
Speaker 1: and so it's like, oh, wow, he wasn't completely cruel
Speaker 1: to me about my underwear. I was about to say
Speaker 1: that the canoe scene is supposed to be the one
Speaker 1: that teaches you that he's actually like fun charming, but
Speaker 1: he comes into her canoe against her will, right, It's
Speaker 1: like she doesn't want him to and it's very dangerous.
Speaker 1: He's like not even clearing the bar that we put
Speaker 1: on the floor for him, so tripping over it and
Speaker 1: falling flat on his face. But I feel like there
Speaker 1: are those little details are supposed to be the ones
Speaker 1: that like convinced us like, oh, he's not that bad
Speaker 1: a guy. He seems like a womanizer, but look he
Speaker 1: accepts her body, and look he's goofing around, and it's
Speaker 1: like this is not enough. We need more for bridge It.
Speaker 1: I'm going to need marka Bridget And what the movie
Speaker 1: wants you to think is more for her is Mark Darcy.
Speaker 1: So let's go through him. So, like we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: he is extremely cruel to her from the very beginning.
Speaker 1: So and then after that, in the various moments where
Speaker 1: they are very just like coincidentally in the same place,
Speaker 1: he's usually just ignoring her or being very I don't
Speaker 1: even know, just stuffy and weird. Again, it feels his carecter.
Speaker 1: The Darcy character feels like the only Jane austen E
Speaker 1: character in the movie. It's so weird, like he does
Speaker 1: feel actually Mr Darcy ish to me where it's like
Speaker 1: a standoffish asshole who's like withholding his emotions. And then
Speaker 1: it's like, actually, I have all these feelings but never
Speaker 1: ask me about them again. Like he's the only Jane
Speaker 1: Austen character in the movie. And it's weird because it's
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, right, I think that's really all
Speaker 1: she wanted to use. Yeah, I don't think it's ultimately,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I this whole thing makes me want
Speaker 1: to read the book because I would imagine the book
Speaker 1: is more of a condemnation of the way society tells
Speaker 1: her to his way in bla blah blah. But that's
Speaker 1: like just a hopeful idea because the book is written
Speaker 1: by the woman and then the movie is written by
Speaker 1: her with three white men. I think, yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: excited to get into the hell and fielding a. Yeah yeah, Mark,
Speaker 1: Mark sucks like he he sucks. He's he's like, um,
Speaker 1: by the way, I actually like you a lot, even
Speaker 1: though he's done absolutely nothing to show this, nor would
Speaker 1: he like they haven't even talked to each other, so
Speaker 1: how would he know that he likes her? And I
Speaker 1: fully think that the moment where we're supposed to think
Speaker 1: that Mark is an awesome guy is when he can
Speaker 1: cook an omelet. That's where we're like, oh wow, he's
Speaker 1: actually like woke king because he can cook an Like
Speaker 1: just the standards for these men are so low. It's like,
Speaker 1: if you can fry an egg, you can marry Rene's elwigger,
Speaker 1: and it's like, that's just that we have to eat.
Speaker 1: We have to want more for her. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: His whole thing is that he's just so emotionally distant
Speaker 1: and withholding. And then the big thing for me when
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, he's awful is that
Speaker 1: he invades her privacy when he finds what is clearly
Speaker 1: her diary and then proceeds to read it. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: We literally saw her write what it is on the
Speaker 1: first page two times and then he reads it um
Speaker 1: And the only thing that I was like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is I guess slightly not even redeemable for him, but
Speaker 1: that he did the bare minimum decent thing to do.
Speaker 1: And I was surprised by it because we never even
Speaker 1: see the bare minimum decent thing for a man to do.
Speaker 1: But he does ask for sent to kiss her at
Speaker 1: the end, after he reads her diary. He's like, I
Speaker 1: forgot to kiss you goodbye? Do you mind? And then
Speaker 1: he waits for a response. He reads her diary while
Speaker 1: she's changing into tiny panties for him because she was
Speaker 1: so ashamed by Hugh Grant for her other ones. Oh
Speaker 1: I didn't even make that connection. Oh that's so leave
Speaker 1: Bridget alone. I feel like Mark is really the personification
Speaker 1: of that like shitty thing that a lot of girls
Speaker 1: are taught that. It's like if a man is meet
Speaker 1: to you, it meets he has a crush on you,
Speaker 1: and it's just that ideology, except he's forty and it's
Speaker 1: all true where it's like, normally when men are girl,
Speaker 1: do you it's literally just because um, they're not nice people,
Speaker 1: they don't respect women. But but in Mark's case, he
Speaker 1: is actually just He just doesn't know how to exp
Speaker 1: He only knows how to express himself by insulting women,
Speaker 1: and so she should give him a chance. He also,
Speaker 1: like we've already mentioned, starts just showing up unannounced. He's
Speaker 1: it's so weird, especially when the biggest win of Bridget's career.
Speaker 1: I would like that moment where she like nails the
Speaker 1: story and they're like, Wow, she's such a charming host.
Speaker 1: We love this girl. Was because Mark showed up somewhere.
Speaker 1: I just wish that she had gotten a win that
Speaker 1: was independent of guy hands it to her. Yeah, the interview,
Speaker 1: I mean, she does great at the interview, but she
Speaker 1: gives it to her. And then the scene where they fight, which, again,
Speaker 1: this is usually presented in movies. If two men are
Speaker 1: fighting over a woman, it's because they just love her
Speaker 1: so much, And isn't it so romantic that they're beating
Speaker 1: each other to a pulp over you? And at the
Speaker 1: very least she rejects both of them right after this fight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did like that, But that is grounds enough that,
Speaker 1: Like if two men are like so toxic in their
Speaker 1: masculinity that they are going to physically fight each other
Speaker 1: and then she ends up with one of them, that no, right,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't care for that. I was scared
Speaker 1: she was gonna take Hugh Grant inside and go nurse
Speaker 1: his wounds. I was so glad she did it. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's like of the few wins that I do. It's
Speaker 1: never enough, But I do like the two moments where
Speaker 1: she kind of like hands Hugh Grants asked back to
Speaker 1: him this moment and then when she tells him to
Speaker 1: funk off at work, I mean he should have gotten
Speaker 1: fucking fired for clearly having sex with every female coworker
Speaker 1: he's attracted to and like relentlessly hitting on them, because
Speaker 1: you could like build a story where that American woman
Speaker 1: Lisa or Liza could be in a very similar situation
Speaker 1: to Bridget and probably is where she is like being
Speaker 1: hit on by her boss and doesn't have anywhere else
Speaker 1: to work, and it's like that classic horrible situation for
Speaker 1: women in the workplace of like, well, if I don't,
Speaker 1: you know, do what he wants me to do, then
Speaker 1: am I going to have a job or not? And
Speaker 1: so it's not what I would how I would want
Speaker 1: that sea to end. But I do like the Bridget
Speaker 1: at least as like go fund yourself. I'm I'm out
Speaker 1: of here. So I don't know. It's so there's both
Speaker 1: so awful and the fight too. I was like, I
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out how I felt about the
Speaker 1: fight because it is funny to watch, and I feel
Speaker 1: like there is I don't know. I feel like in
Speaker 1: romcoms we sometimes see it's okay, tell me if this
Speaker 1: is if I should just put my head through a
Speaker 1: shredder and then I will. But I do feel like
Speaker 1: with this fight, it was it was filmed a little
Speaker 1: more like two women fighting over a guy than two men,
Speaker 1: like you know, in combat, which I thought was like,
Speaker 1: I don't really think it's better or worse. I just
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting because I don't think you I
Speaker 1: feel like you more frequently see women pulling each other's
Speaker 1: hair in like fights like this than you see men
Speaker 1: throwing like I mean, they're not fighting well, they're fighting
Speaker 1: like really badly. I don't think it's good or bad.
Speaker 1: I just sort of had that thought of, like, it
Speaker 1: seems like they're having a similar fight to when in
Speaker 1: the genre women are like, you know, tearing each other's
Speaker 1: hair as opposed to like, I don't know, being at
Speaker 1: war like they're they're they're not good fighters. It was
Speaker 1: funny to watch. It is so long, it's really I
Speaker 1: hate them both. Yeah. You know who ends up being
Speaker 1: the feminist hero of this movie is you know, when
Speaker 1: she goes on the series of job interviews to try
Speaker 1: to find a new job in TV or whatever, and
Speaker 1: ultimately the last one she admits, like I had an
Speaker 1: affair with my boss and he is making my life
Speaker 1: hell or whatever. And the guy goes, Okay, fine, you
Speaker 1: start Monday. That guy was like understanding about how like
Speaker 1: her former toxic workplace, like she couldn't. But then he's actually,
Speaker 1: he's like, also, if you suck the boss, we won't fire.
Speaker 1: You know. I liked her being honest about it for
Speaker 1: a second though. She was like, I can no longer
Speaker 1: stay in my toxic workplace, you know. But then no, never,
Speaker 1: I take back everything I just said. He's only understanding
Speaker 1: because he also wants to have sex with her. Right
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, so you suck your boss? Is like
Speaker 1: that horrific. I love Bridget, though, you know it's hard.
Speaker 1: I can't get who does she? Okay, Caitlin, you've seen
Speaker 1: the movies after this? Who does she? Does she end
Speaker 1: up with? Anyone? What happens? I'll give you a very
Speaker 1: brief rundown. So Bridget Jones Edge of Reason, which I
Speaker 1: think came out in two thousand four. It sounds like
Speaker 1: a James Bond End of Reason. So the story there
Speaker 1: is it picks up like six weeks after the first
Speaker 1: movie ends. She's in a relationship with Mark Darcy, and
Speaker 1: she's like, I can't believe he hasn't asked me to
Speaker 1: marry him yet, even though we've only been dating for
Speaker 1: six weeks. I mean, how long is he dating Natasha?
Speaker 1: You know, three minutes? We don't know. Okay. So he
Speaker 1: is in like another kind of like barrister partnership with
Speaker 1: another woman who um, she keeps thinking that he might
Speaker 1: be having an affair with um. They break up at
Speaker 1: some point, I think, And then she starts working with
Speaker 1: Hugh Grant again, who is also now working in television.
Speaker 1: He's also made the same exact career switch. Um. He's
Speaker 1: like a travel show personality. So she goes with him
Speaker 1: to Thailand. And if you are like I wonder if
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of racist stuff that happens in that storyline,
Speaker 1: you would be correct. And then she gets arrested and
Speaker 1: thrown in a Thai prison what for a large portion
Speaker 1: of the movie. And then Mark Darcy has to like
Speaker 1: basically use all of his like connections to get her
Speaker 1: out of this Thai prison. But he like plays it
Speaker 1: off like, oh, I'm just the messenger. I didn't do
Speaker 1: any of this for you. But then she finds out, oh,
Speaker 1: he did do it all for her, and she's like,
Speaker 1: he must still love me, and then shows she like
Speaker 1: goes to him at the end and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess we're in love again. And basically the same
Speaker 1: exact like plot points happen in the second movie as
Speaker 1: do in the first movie. It's just like some of
Speaker 1: the right. So that's the gist of Edge of Reason.
Speaker 1: Now bridget Jones's baby, which came out and I believe
Speaker 1: so like over a decade after even the Edge of Reason. Um,
Speaker 1: here's what I'll say about it. It is two hours long,
Speaker 1: which is at least a half hour longer than it
Speaker 1: needs to be. It is so long and very slow
Speaker 1: and very boring. Um. Hugh Grant's character is dead. What
Speaker 1: they kill off Daniel Cleaver so he refused to come back.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to do the movie. He was shooting Patty.
Speaker 1: He's like, I busy exactly exactly. That would have been
Speaker 1: like the right timeline. Yeah. I think that's so weird.
Speaker 1: What how did he die? I want to know how
Speaker 1: he died? He died? Um, I think something like he
Speaker 1: was flying like a private Sorry, my neighbor's dog is barking,
Speaker 1: but um, if you can hear it, but um, he
Speaker 1: was flying like a private plane and then like crashed
Speaker 1: it or something, so he's he's not in the movie. Instead,
Speaker 1: the love triangle is with Patrick Dempsey this time. No,
Speaker 1: he's especially hot in this movie. I was going to
Speaker 1: ask if I should watch these in between Thai Prison
Speaker 1: and Patrick Dempsey and uh so she has sex with
Speaker 1: both Patrick Dempsey and Colin Firth within a few days
Speaker 1: of each other, and then she gets pregnant, but she
Speaker 1: doesn't know who the father is and she leads them
Speaker 1: to believe they're both the father, and then Hi Jinks
Speaker 1: and Sue, I kind of like this swim better. He's funny. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like this is kind of fun more fun to me
Speaker 1: than the second one sounds. That's such a bold move
Speaker 1: to kill off Hugh grat That's so funny, especially because
Speaker 1: Renee Sellwinger and like Colin Firth by sixteen, they both
Speaker 1: have oscars and they're still game. But Hugh Grant is like,
Speaker 1: I am not available. It's like if it's Paddington too,
Speaker 1: I have no issue. True, you need to find out
Speaker 1: why and then we can decide if we're going to
Speaker 1: judge it. Um, but the skip ahead, you know, fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds or whatever for the spoiler of Bridget Jones Baby.
Speaker 1: But at the end of that movie, Bridget and Mark
Speaker 1: Darcy ak Colin Firth get married and it was baby
Speaker 1: was I don't even remember. I think they like figure
Speaker 1: out like genealogically that it is Colin Firth, but I
Speaker 1: truly was like only half paying attention, kind of fun
Speaker 1: of Colin Firth raised Patrick's dempsies Baby there. Okay, So
Speaker 1: if you were like doing a power ranking of the
Speaker 1: three Bridget Jones that's what's your what's your ranking? I
Speaker 1: would say the first movie I like the best, and
Speaker 1: the Baby one I like the least. Also, especially because
Speaker 1: like it came out five years ago and it is
Speaker 1: really no less problematic than these ones from the early
Speaker 1: two thousand's. That is there more than one book? Is
Speaker 1: the book? Is it a series? It is a series.
Speaker 1: I know that at least the first to like Bridget
Speaker 1: Jones Diary and Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason, we're
Speaker 1: also the name of the books. I don't know how
Speaker 1: long this series went on for, but that's a that's
Speaker 1: a great pivot into a little bit of context corner
Speaker 1: stuff with Helen Fielding. I mean it's nothing that is
Speaker 1: like completely earth shattering, but the the Bridget Jones is
Speaker 1: like written and based on the life of Helen Fielding,
Speaker 1: who wrote the books, who isn't Bridget Jones exactly but
Speaker 1: has a lot in common with her. She worked in
Speaker 1: publishing and then she made a career pivot in her
Speaker 1: thirties to work as a TV producer, which is incidentally
Speaker 1: where she meets the director of this movie, Sharon McGuire.
Speaker 1: They were both working at BBC in like the nineties
Speaker 1: Helen Fielding started writing this column. It all sounds vaguely
Speaker 1: like British Sex in the City, basically where Helen Fielding
Speaker 1: starts writing this column anonymously about her life as a
Speaker 1: single thirtiesomething. It gets popular, she fictionalizes more of it
Speaker 1: and turns it into this novel, which becomes bridge Gen's diary.
Speaker 1: The book becomes really popular, uh than she gets. I mean,
Speaker 1: the fact that this movie is direct like a rom
Speaker 1: com in the early two thousand's directed by a woman, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: is pretty huge unbelievable. Um and and I feel like
Speaker 1: there are some choices where I'm like, oh, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that there was a female director for this like
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily trust a male director to not just
Speaker 1: be super obsessed with the protagonist body and like all
Speaker 1: this other ship that I thought was at least more
Speaker 1: tastefully handled. But anyways, Helen Fielding and Sharon McGuire are friends.
Speaker 1: They're on this come up together. Um. What I think
Speaker 1: is most interesting is that Helen Fielding, so because this
Speaker 1: movie is turning twenty years old pretty soon. Um, there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of like anniversary reflections. There was a
Speaker 1: whole documentary on the BBC that you can't watch in
Speaker 1: the States, so I don't know what happens. But basically
Speaker 1: Helen Fielding has been reflecting on Bridget Jones, you know,
Speaker 1: twenty five years after conceiving the character and watching this
Speaker 1: movie back, and she gave like this really interesting quote
Speaker 1: I would like to share about her experience watching back
Speaker 1: this movie with her kid, um, who I think is
Speaker 1: like in their twenties now. Um, So this is from
Speaker 1: like December of last year. So this is from a
Speaker 1: Guardian article and it goes like this quote, Bridget Jones
Speaker 1: creator Helen Fielding is now shocked by the sexism her
Speaker 1: character face, the writer has revealed looking back twenty five years.
Speaker 1: Fielding said she would not be able to write the
Speaker 1: story now. Watching the hit film of her first book
Speaker 1: recently with her children, she was staggered. Helen Fielding says
Speaker 1: the level of sexism that Bridget was dealing with, the
Speaker 1: hand on the bum and so many of the scenes
Speaker 1: made it quite shocking for me to see how things,
Speaker 1: how much things have changed since then, Fielding told radio
Speaker 1: host uh Fielding added that she was particularly struck by
Speaker 1: a scene in which Bridget's fictional boss demands a shot
Speaker 1: of the boobs. Seeing old attitudes that were just part
Speaker 1: and parcel of her life depicted on screen again was alarming.
Speaker 1: Although her heroine, played by Renee's Elwiger, is not a
Speaker 1: passive victim, in the end, she turned around and stuck
Speaker 1: it to them. Um So I thought, I thought it
Speaker 1: was interesting to see, like, while this is like not
Speaker 1: the triumphant feminist tale, like that, even like the author's
Speaker 1: understanding of her own work, which is to an extent
Speaker 1: a reflection of how she saw herself and her own
Speaker 1: life at that time, has changed over years and with
Speaker 1: all the you know not I mean with the progress
Speaker 1: that has taken place since Bridget Jones as a character
Speaker 1: was conceived in the mid nineties. The author is like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that was so bad. That was so
Speaker 1: and in ways she didn't even realize as she was
Speaker 1: writing the character. So I thought that was like kind
Speaker 1: of a cool I don't know, you, I feel like
Speaker 1: most writers don't give you that kind of level of
Speaker 1: insight into their own work. Later on, Yeah, because you
Speaker 1: do see stuff that again we with our lens, we
Speaker 1: very clearly notice things that again we're just so normalized
Speaker 1: in that era that just strike us so alarmingly as
Speaker 1: just being very problematic, Like, yeah, she's subject to so
Speaker 1: much sexual harassment, Like there's a creepy like uncle figure
Speaker 1: character who's harassing her, and that is like played for
Speaker 1: laughs arguably in the movie, but not because like I
Speaker 1: don't think the writer was like, oh, let's laugh at
Speaker 1: women getting sexually harassed. It's more just like that was
Speaker 1: the mentality of that era and the same thing with
Speaker 1: their boss too, or like that it's so weird. That
Speaker 1: was like I wrote down like self bouschemy test where
Speaker 1: you see her be hit on by two of her bosses,
Speaker 1: but one she doesn't find attractive and so it's creepy.
Speaker 1: And then when she does find attractive, so it's right.
Speaker 1: And I was just like, well, there's a level of
Speaker 1: self awareness happening there, and yeah, I mean I feel
Speaker 1: Bridget as very much like a product of her environment
Speaker 1: almost of like it's I kind of hesitate to fault
Speaker 1: her for how hard she is in herself, because that
Speaker 1: is all the that's the only message and feedback she's getting,
Speaker 1: even from people who love her, even from her friends
Speaker 1: and family, they're like, you're so, what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of like, well, you know, unless
Speaker 1: you have this, like unless you're like reading through feminist
Speaker 1: text day in and day out, like what you know,
Speaker 1: what are you supposed to do as a normal person
Speaker 1: if everyone in your life is telling you that you're
Speaker 1: like not worthy. I don't know. I really feel for
Speaker 1: her and I'm glad she exists. So it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I love Bridgets Die, I don't love her diet,
Speaker 1: but like I'm pro diary and anti the plot of
Speaker 1: the movie. I think what also makes you wonder like,
Speaker 1: since she spends so much of her diary railing against
Speaker 1: Mark Darcy and saying how much she hates him and
Speaker 1: how awful he is, why does she end up with him,
Speaker 1: but also he wasn't a very big part of her life.
Speaker 1: She's spending a lot of diary space on someone she
Speaker 1: doesn't really talk to at all. Yeah, but you know
Speaker 1: what's so interesting about hearing that quote is how many
Speaker 1: female screenwriters can now reflect on a movie they had
Speaker 1: made twenty years ago. That's just so rare. Like the
Speaker 1: fact that it was I mean, she co wrote the
Speaker 1: screenplay with a couple of dudes, but like the fact
Speaker 1: that it was co written and directed by a woman
Speaker 1: in two thousand, two thousand, and then came out in
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. Yeah, Yeah, it's I'm like, I
Speaker 1: was really glad that she was kind of like down
Speaker 1: to interact on that level and not get because I did,
Speaker 1: like so many writers and I don't even like, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's like just people get defensive when you're like, why
Speaker 1: is Bridget Jones? Like why is everyone so mean to her?
Speaker 1: And she's like, I guess that's just kind of how
Speaker 1: I felt, And like she also kind of comments on
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like there's some kind of
Speaker 1: like there was a string of articles that came out
Speaker 1: in when the Bridget Jones Baby was coming out that
Speaker 1: we're kind of just like Bridget Jones isn't a feminist,
Speaker 1: so screw her, like, which I think is kind of like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's kind of weak. But Helen Fielding kind of talks
Speaker 1: about that in where she says, quote at the time,
Speaker 1: Bridget said being a feminist with a capital F was
Speaker 1: another thing she felt she wasn't very good at. What's
Speaker 1: great now is that feminism has sort of lost its
Speaker 1: capital F unquote, which I really I thought that quote
Speaker 1: was like super insightful of like, I don't know, like
Speaker 1: I think it is interesting to have a character like
Speaker 1: Bridget who seems to like want to feel good about
Speaker 1: herself and she doesn't seem to really carry a lot
Speaker 1: of hatred or judgment for other women in her life. Um,
Speaker 1: and so it does seem like she is like kind
Speaker 1: of this like aspiring feminist character, but she's just she's
Speaker 1: not given any tools or any people in her life
Speaker 1: to kind of get her there. And so I kind
Speaker 1: of like, I don't know the idea of there's like
Speaker 1: kind of this romantic rom com icon who's like this
Speaker 1: very imperfect, aspiring feminist, Like that's that's cool. I just
Speaker 1: wish that the plot was mostly different. I wish that
Speaker 1: you liked either of the male options at all, a
Speaker 1: single redeeming quality I take, I take, or even like
Speaker 1: you know whatever. I know so little about Sex of
Speaker 1: the City, but like I do know how the TV
Speaker 1: show ends, and it's like, just choose to be single
Speaker 1: at the end, Like that would be honestly given the
Speaker 1: characters were given a pretty logical decision in this movie.
Speaker 1: Is like her journey being feeling from like needing that
Speaker 1: she needs to be in a relationship to realizing that
Speaker 1: she actually doesn't, and then it's like she can There's
Speaker 1: so much in her life to be happy about. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Um, I just wanted to touch on a
Speaker 1: couple other very of the early two thousand's era. Um,
Speaker 1: just things you hate to see. One this movie is painfully,
Speaker 1: painfully white. Bridget seems to only know other white people.
Speaker 1: There is reference to Mark Darcy's ex wife who was Japanese,
Speaker 1: and we never see her. We always never like leg
Speaker 1: we see her legs getting railed. Yeah, we see the
Speaker 1: legs of a woman who is having in the flash
Speaker 1: body double. But that's it. Um. But Japanese people are
Speaker 1: referred to as being a cruel race no less than
Speaker 1: three or four times throughout the movie, usually from Bridget's mom.
Speaker 1: But then Bridget, even I think, says it was clearly yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a joke for for them in a way,
Speaker 1: it's not so um you know, that's awful. British's mom
Speaker 1: also makes a holocaust joke within the first five minutes
Speaker 1: in the movie, like two minutes of movie. It is unbelievable, horrifying.
Speaker 1: I had to rewind it to be like, wait, is
Speaker 1: like us to us too. I was like, Wede, let's
Speaker 1: just let's check that out. Uh yeah, and then these
Speaker 1: go completely unchallenged. Bridget has a like token gay best
Speaker 1: friend character who and I had to ask one of
Speaker 1: my British friends, how like offensive the word? And I
Speaker 1: don't even want to say. Okay, I had this question too, Okay,
Speaker 1: what what is the answer? So it's basically the equivalent
Speaker 1: of like the American version of the F word that
Speaker 1: is a homophobic slur. Not great. So the word the
Speaker 1: P word, that is a homophobic slur used in England
Speaker 1: gets used a lot in this movie. If I'm wrong
Speaker 1: about this, like for our like British listeners, let us know. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm not famously, we just don't know. We're famously not British,
Speaker 1: and we don't know the nuances of your homophobic slurs.
Speaker 1: So that Tom was another care to her that I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm I don't know, Like it's he clearly is filling
Speaker 1: the gay best friend role in her life. But I
Speaker 1: would also argue that he's no better or worse written
Speaker 1: than the other women in the room. Like I think
Speaker 1: we actually know more about him than we know about Chas.
Speaker 1: He has like a bit because he wrote that hit
Speaker 1: song nine years ago or something or something. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a fun like it's a fun bit. I mean, ultimately,
Speaker 1: it's like, the only you know, openly gay character we
Speaker 1: have is there to just I mean, only exists in
Speaker 1: relation to Bridget and it's like very much fulfilling the
Speaker 1: gay best friend. But but in terms of her friend group,
Speaker 1: I guess I would say we know one thing about
Speaker 1: each of them, except for Chaser, who we know no
Speaker 1: things about. She likes to say fuck, and that's the
Speaker 1: main thing that people know about me. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's how we talk about you, Caitlin, Like, everyone be careful.
Speaker 1: Caitlin's coming over and she's gonna shape bus to say,
Speaker 1: try not to gasp when she does it. Um, those
Speaker 1: are the main things that that I noticed. I went
Speaker 1: to really really really quick. I do that we're starting
Speaker 1: to we're quickly approaching the run time of the movie,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to really quick talk about bridgets parents
Speaker 1: for a second, because they do have a small arc
Speaker 1: that again I was like, I was interested in as
Speaker 1: it was starting, and then by the end, I was like, really,
Speaker 1: where we get I mean Bridget and her mom, we
Speaker 1: get a little bit of insight into their relationship. Again,
Speaker 1: some people will argue that this is like a Jane
Speaker 1: Austin contrivance, but I think it's just more of a
Speaker 1: general contrivance of like mother really wants you to get married,
Speaker 1: but father is chilling pretty nice. Like I think that
Speaker 1: that's a very common, annoying contrivance that is just made
Speaker 1: to make older women look shrewy kind of just for
Speaker 1: no reason. So that already is like, okay, come on.
Speaker 1: But on top of that, I was interested in that
Speaker 1: scene where Bridget's mom is like, I'm not satisfied with
Speaker 1: my life and like I'm you know, getting older and
Speaker 1: I've never gotten to have a satisfying career or like
Speaker 1: things to sex or sex, like she's dissatisfied with where
Speaker 1: her life is at, and it's like, Okay, this is interesting.
Speaker 1: We don't usually get storylines like this, And so Bridget's
Speaker 1: mom goes off. She basically started working on qvc uh
Speaker 1: and which is like, you know, great for her, but
Speaker 1: it's also inherently connected to her relationship with another man,
Speaker 1: which didn't need to be. And then by the end
Speaker 1: she quote unquote gets over it, even though this solves
Speaker 1: none of her marital issues. And then it's supposed to
Speaker 1: seem like really chill of Jim Broadbent of Mulan Rouge
Speaker 1: fame and Paddington Fame. Again, he's Mr Grouper and Paddington.
Speaker 1: Damn what I mean, King, We love Jim Brad Paddington
Speaker 1: connections are all over the place. It does just seem
Speaker 1: like they have fifteen actors total intain And yet when
Speaker 1: we bring Renee Zellweger, when we bring a glorious American
Speaker 1: export like Renee Zellwiger, people get mad. Um. They're also
Speaker 1: in the IMDb trivia is all sorts of about how
Speaker 1: many of them were in the Harry Potter series too. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of overlap there as well that tracks,
Speaker 1: but like at the end, it's supposed to seem like, oh,
Speaker 1: Jim brad Bent takes her back and isn't that a
Speaker 1: satisfying conclusion, And it's like, well, no, none of her
Speaker 1: problems have been addressed or solved and he showed no growth,
Speaker 1: like her father's mad at her for like doing what
Speaker 1: she wanted with her Like it's like, you don't know
Speaker 1: in the same way that both of like it's almost
Speaker 1: like a toxic like generational trauma story where in the
Speaker 1: same way that Jim Broadbent does not care really about
Speaker 1: who his wife his wife is, like, nor does Colin
Speaker 1: Firth really care who Bridget Jones is, and we're just
Speaker 1: taken the same scraps that are offered to us generation
Speaker 1: in and out. I was so bummed out with that
Speaker 1: because I thought that was like a funny, interesting story
Speaker 1: of like, oh, she's like forging her own path and
Speaker 1: it's like kind of dorky and kind of messy, but
Speaker 1: like go mom, But then it's not. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: so frustrated by that because she leaves Bridget's dad because
Speaker 1: none of her like emotional or sexual needs or being
Speaker 1: met in this marriage, which is huge for that for
Speaker 1: women of that generation, Like that's a hugely And she's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, you know, like strike out on my own,
Speaker 1: do my own thing. And then she basically just goes
Speaker 1: immediately into the arms of a different man who treats
Speaker 1: her worse. So then she just retreats back to Jim Broadbent,
Speaker 1: even though he's again just like demonstrated no indication that
Speaker 1: he has like that he's going to treat her better
Speaker 1: or be more attentive to her needs or anything like that,
Speaker 1: which now that we're saying it is literally what is
Speaker 1: happening to her daughter, Like q Grant is the QBC guy,
Speaker 1: and Bridget's dad is Colin Firth. Oh, I wonder if
Speaker 1: that was on purpose or if just if life is
Speaker 1: that bleak. But I was so I wanted, I mean,
Speaker 1: all the women of the Jones family, I'm just like,
Speaker 1: come on, come on, truly truly. But that said, I
Speaker 1: love I love Jimma Jones, She's always fun. I love her,
Speaker 1: and I love Jim Broadbent. And I didn't realize that
Speaker 1: the friend was moaning myrtle. But now I can't stop thinking, well,
Speaker 1: that was a complete mind funk for me because when
Speaker 1: I saw the Harry Potter movie that she first shows
Speaker 1: up in, which is Chamber of Secrets, I think, like
Speaker 1: she's supposed to be like a teenager who would have,
Speaker 1: like Bean a student at Hogwarts, and then you see
Speaker 1: her in other movies when she's a full adult, and
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, this person is not
Speaker 1: like six, supposed to be like fifteen. Yeah. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so bizarre. I have been here for so many Halloween's
Speaker 1: because I look just like Vaning Myrtles. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I do love Like that's the best like stretch of
Speaker 1: like Riverdale logic of like, no, she's fifteen, and it's like, no,
Speaker 1: she's forty two, but but I believe I fully believed
Speaker 1: she was fifteen. Yeah, same. Ah. Does anyone have anything
Speaker 1: else they would like to talk about regarding Bridget Jones
Speaker 1: and her diary? I think I'm going to watch the others.
Speaker 1: The type prison thing is really something I need to
Speaker 1: check out. It's handled just about as well or should
Speaker 1: I say poorly as you would expect. Yes, yes, Um,
Speaker 1: the music budget in this movie it's unbelievable. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: a producer, so you know a lot more about that.
Speaker 1: I was curious because it was like they used so
Speaker 1: many huge, huge what's the one she's singing along too
Speaker 1: at the beginning to Yes? And it's also a whole
Speaker 1: other level of budget for someone to like sing along
Speaker 1: to it, Like there's playing and then there's like interacting,
Speaker 1: and then there's like you know it didn't They always
Speaker 1: ask us like, if people are going to do a dance,
Speaker 1: then you have to like, do you know it's all
Speaker 1: a the whole thing. I mean, I'm probably being dumb
Speaker 1: and music supervisor will listen to this and be like,
Speaker 1: shut the funk up, But I think it's a whole thing,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, I just could not stop thinking about that.
Speaker 1: The movie made absolute bank though, so sure, I mean,
Speaker 1: who hundred million dollars it was million dollar budget or something,
Speaker 1: which is I mean, I'm glad that it, like you know, launched.
Speaker 1: I mean Renezellweger, I think, up to this point was
Speaker 1: most famous for having been in Jerry Maguire and then
Speaker 1: this is kind of what like led her to like
Speaker 1: carrying movies on her own. And I love Renee Lwager.
Speaker 1: I think she's a great performer, Like I have no
Speaker 1: no notes for Rene's Lwager, except that Judy was not great.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm glad that she has an Oscar. But
Speaker 1: that was a messy movie. But imagine someone getting nominated
Speaker 1: for Best Actress for a rom com unheard of. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of it's so. I'm like, I guess we just
Speaker 1: had to be there, like because it's so because she
Speaker 1: gives a great performance, but so do a lot of
Speaker 1: rom com performers, and it's not even a thing. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm curious if it has to do with that whole
Speaker 1: Like she changed her body to play the part, which
Speaker 1: I feel like is classically Oscar Batty in a kind
Speaker 1: of toxic way. But I just I don't Maybe it
Speaker 1: was just it was so successful. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, good for her. They're like, we've
Speaker 1: never seen an American do this authentic of a British accent.
Speaker 1: Give her an Oscar. I guess. Also just like another
Speaker 1: shout out to Rene's lgar because I feel like she's
Speaker 1: uniquely criticized for how she looks and has been uniquely
Speaker 1: criticized for how she looks at every point in her
Speaker 1: career in a way that I feel like pretty cleanly
Speaker 1: demonstrates for like, there's nothing you can do to not
Speaker 1: get criticized, because when she put on weight for a part,
Speaker 1: people made fun of her. When she lost weight the
Speaker 1: year after this to do Chicago, everyone said she's too skinny.
Speaker 1: She looks bad when she's gotten any sort of anything
Speaker 1: that has altered. I mean she was like being mocked
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago for getting plastic surgery, which
Speaker 1: everyone does. And like for someone who see who's like
Speaker 1: extremely talented, has like a shelf full of trophies and
Speaker 1: seems like a really kind person, like she's just been
Speaker 1: absolutely like torn to shreds no matter how she looks
Speaker 1: at any phase in her career or life. So she
Speaker 1: had an amazing quote I read when someone was criticizing
Speaker 1: her for like supposedly having work done over the past
Speaker 1: few years. She said, like, of course I look different.
Speaker 1: I've aged also because I'm happy now. I was like,
Speaker 1: I remember that girl, which I thought was great. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I mean she's gotten it almost as bad as anybody.
Speaker 1: Just any move she's made unbelievable totally, and she's so
Speaker 1: talented and like yeah so I and especially I mean
Speaker 1: if you compare like even if you look at the
Speaker 1: three main players in this movie of like they have,
Speaker 1: they are all twenty years older now. But who is
Speaker 1: the only person that has taken a load of ship
Speaker 1: for that? It's Renee's Alberger. Um, she's great, So shout
Speaker 1: out to Renee. I don't know who won the Academy Award,
Speaker 1: said of her, but oh yeah, I don't. It would
Speaker 1: be wild if someone won won a Performance Academy Award
Speaker 1: for for a rom com. I can't imagine. Wow. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I want to know who won that oscar? I know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, who snatched that from Renee's hands? What was
Speaker 1: it would have been? It would have been too so
Speaker 1: it would have been two to ceremony. Right, that's how
Speaker 1: that works. Um, who t like it? Oh? Nicole Kidman
Speaker 1: in the Hours, So another traditionally hot woman who slightly
Speaker 1: altered her appearance and gave a good performance classic and
Speaker 1: then they would both star in Cold Mountain together not
Speaker 1: long after that. Right, Wait, I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: This year of nomination. No, this is Halle Berry's year.
Speaker 1: So it's fine, Okay, Okay, it was Nicole because Renee
Speaker 1: she's on a fucking hot streak. In the early two thousand's,
Speaker 1: she was nominated for Best Actress two years in a row.
Speaker 1: Because she's nominated for Chicago the next year. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, she's living her life
Speaker 1: and then comes back and we're like, I guess we're
Speaker 1: going to give it to her for Judy's favorite film.
Speaker 1: It always bothers me. I love I love Renee Seliger,
Speaker 1: and I love Judy Garland and that movie sucks. So
Speaker 1: I guess I just don't know what to say. I
Speaker 1: did not watch it. I didn't think I could handle.
Speaker 1: I was so I was really rooting for Judy, but
Speaker 1: it's simply is a stinker. Yeah. Anyways, Bridget Jones Larga Jones,
Speaker 1: Uh does this movie pass the Bechtel test? Yeah? Doesn't.
Speaker 1: I actually wasn't sure. I forgot to pay super close
Speaker 1: attention because I know that women interact a lot in
Speaker 1: this movie. Between Bridget and her two friends who are women,
Speaker 1: she and her mother. She has a female colleague at
Speaker 1: work named Perpetua. Perpetua Yeah, oh god, I'm so glad.
Speaker 1: We comment about it, which is like, I was like,
Speaker 1: what an iconic name per Petua, Like it sounds like
Speaker 1: a Greek myth right, and I was like, maybe it's
Speaker 1: a pride and prejudice thing, but I don't think it is.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like there are people in England literally
Speaker 1: named perpetual. I mean, it's like a Midsummer Night's dream type.
Speaker 1: I dropped off paying attention to whether it's super passed consistently.
Speaker 1: I do know that it at least passed in that
Speaker 1: longer scene with Bridget and her mom where Bridgets talking
Speaker 1: about or where Bridget's mom is talking about it's. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: the thing I had past it was Bridget's mom being like,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't really want children like that exchange. Oh,
Speaker 1: if I had to do it again, I wouldn't have you. Bridget.
Speaker 1: She's like, you know, I'm your child, right, and like
Speaker 1: that passes, So there you go. Yeah, okay, yeah. I
Speaker 1: was just noticing that most of the conversations between women,
Speaker 1: while many of them are named, the context of so
Speaker 1: many of the conversations were about Mark or Daniel or
Speaker 1: Bridget's dad or the guy that her mom has an
Speaker 1: affair with, or or they're talking about boyfriends or like yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it doesn't pass as much as it should given
Speaker 1: how many female characters there are named female characters. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but if we're if we're keeping close score, it does
Speaker 1: pass at least a couple of times that I was
Speaker 1: able to find, but only, but weirdly, only in like
Speaker 1: two line exchanges in longer conversations. But I thought it
Speaker 1: was that was one of my favorite bad passes was
Speaker 1: a mother telling her daughter that she wishes that she
Speaker 1: was never born. It does pass, that's rough, I know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Well that brings us to our nipple scale, so zero
Speaker 1: to five nipples based on an examination of how the
Speaker 1: movie fares from an intersectional feminist lens, and I think
Speaker 1: I can only give this movie like two because while
Speaker 1: I do appreciate the character of Bridget Jones and the
Speaker 1: like exploration of her insecurities and her being a more
Speaker 1: relatable rom com protagonists who is a woman more so
Speaker 1: than many other rom coms, especially of this era, there's
Speaker 1: just so much of this era bleeding into the story
Speaker 1: and contributing all these problematic things to it, namely the
Speaker 1: like having to settle for one or the other of
Speaker 1: two very shitty toxic men um, the just offensive and
Speaker 1: problematic jokes, casual racism, casual homophobia, things like that that
Speaker 1: make the movie not age very well. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: wish I wish you could just take a character who
Speaker 1: is similarly relatable and uh dealing with you know what
Speaker 1: life throws at you as a woman who is like
Speaker 1: navigating her career and trying to navigate romantic relationships and
Speaker 1: trying to navigate just everything in your personal or professional life,
Speaker 1: and have her be relatable and interesting and well developed
Speaker 1: and just like put in a scenario that isn't so problematic.
Speaker 1: So that's what I want for Bridget Jones. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'll give the movie to nipples, and I will
Speaker 1: give one to Paddington Bear, and I'll give the other one,
Speaker 1: uh Phoenix Buchanan, Hugh Grant's character in Paddington Too. Maybe
Speaker 1: want to call in Firth for losing out on that part. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, I'll give him a half nipple and then
Speaker 1: I'll give another half nipple to um. Mr Gruber a K.
Speaker 1: Jim Broadbent. I love Jim Brodbin. I feel like I
Speaker 1: first saw Jim Broadbent in the really crummy Narnia movies
Speaker 1: when I was he was in those. I didn't remember
Speaker 1: him being in those. He plays I think their grandfather.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I used to have a huge crush
Speaker 1: on one of the like siblings in the Narnia family.
Speaker 1: His name was Scandar. Anyway, he's a lawyer, now I learned,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, do you mean a barrister? Probably he's British?
Speaker 1: What even as a barrister it must be something like related.
Speaker 1: It seems like government really is it the same way
Speaker 1: that like a lawyer and an attorney, that's like basically
Speaker 1: the same thing. It's just like two different words for it.
Speaker 1: Maybe in England it's you're a lawyer or but also
Speaker 1: a barrister, same things. I don't know. So for our
Speaker 1: for our British listeners, we need a lot of please
Speaker 1: answer all of our questions. Do you have more than
Speaker 1: fifteen actors? And um, I'm gonna go to nipples here
Speaker 1: as well. I feel like Bridget Jones, the character I
Speaker 1: am rooting for, I feel like there were so many
Speaker 1: good opportunities in this movie to take on like Bridgets
Speaker 1: insecurities and create a thoughtful plot that says something, And
Speaker 1: unfortunately most of those opportunities were just like dropped where
Speaker 1: I feel like it's very very rare in a rom
Speaker 1: com for like the pressure that's put on women's bodies
Speaker 1: to look a very certain way is even brought up
Speaker 1: at all in meaningful way, and this one does, but
Speaker 1: then nothing happens, And like it's very rare in a
Speaker 1: rom com for agism to come up in any way,
Speaker 1: and this one does, but then nothing happens, And so
Speaker 1: it's like, I don't know. I hope that I don't think.
Speaker 1: I mean, we already know that rebooting Bridget Jones is
Speaker 1: not the solution to this problem, but I would like
Speaker 1: to see in rom coms more often. And I feel
Speaker 1: like this happens on TV more often than it does
Speaker 1: in movies generally, which is true of a lot of
Speaker 1: more progressive things that you know, like women who are
Speaker 1: responding to the pressures that society is putting onto them
Speaker 1: and like struggling with it because it is an impossible
Speaker 1: bar to clear and you're never going to be the
Speaker 1: person that everyone wants you to be. And I like
Speaker 1: seeing a character struggle with that, and I like seeing
Speaker 1: her be like what the funk and sometimes being like
Speaker 1: fuck you, I'm gonna get drunk and listen to Shaka Khan,
Speaker 1: because like it's just all like I don't know, I
Speaker 1: understand why like female audiences of this time loved Bridget
Speaker 1: Jones for being so like just putting it all out there.
Speaker 1: But privately, I don't know. I'm pro diary anti plot
Speaker 1: of this movie, and that is simply where and I went.
Speaker 1: I went. I also, I just like I wanted more
Speaker 1: for Bridget's friends to like they're clearly all like miserable
Speaker 1: and very insecure as well. Just everyone in this movie
Speaker 1: is so deeply insecure, and I feel like no one
Speaker 1: gets less insecure by the end of the movie, So
Speaker 1: maybe it's just real life. Um, I'm gonna give it
Speaker 1: two nipples. I'm gonna give one to renee Zel Wigger
Speaker 1: because I really love her, and then I will give
Speaker 1: my other nipple to Chasser. Questions shassa, she says, fuck yeah,
Speaker 1: I think two is right. I mean, if you watch,
Speaker 1: I think I almost want to give it three. In
Speaker 1: the context of Jamie reading that quote from Helen fielding
Speaker 1: now because you're like, oh, she was just sort of
Speaker 1: reflecting the time she lived in, you know. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's almost worse that they like bring up these issues
Speaker 1: and then let them fall, you know. Um, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think two is right. Unfortunately, but then I love bridgets,
Speaker 1: so you know, I do. I want to read the
Speaker 1: book honestly because she was so beloved and I see
Speaker 1: why they did this. You know, do I give my
Speaker 1: nipples out if you want to give them to you too? There?
Speaker 1: For my goodness, no one's ever given us there maybe
Speaker 1: once or twice, but in our almost three hundred episodes,
Speaker 1: you think, God, God, I can't believe people us like
Speaker 1: nipples more. Thank you so much for I feel so honored.
Speaker 1: I have. I have one last Rene's Albiger quote I
Speaker 1: like to share because Renee's Alwager has also been very
Speaker 1: open about c as as an adult woman who has
Speaker 1: been single for many stretches of her life and has
Speaker 1: come to be like I was happy, so fuck you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This was what Renee Zellweger said a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago about Bridget Jones. She says, if we were all
Speaker 1: privy to one another's inner dialogue, we would recognize that
Speaker 1: we are so very much alike. We all feel the
Speaker 1: same pressures to measure up, and we all share the
Speaker 1: same fears that we won't. I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: You're right, Renee Zellweger. She is and for her time,
Speaker 1: I feel like Bridget Jones was doing the best she
Speaker 1: could with the Crumby plot. She was given our fledgling
Speaker 1: feminist Bridget Jones. She's working on it now she has
Speaker 1: I guess now she's stuck with Colin Firth's baby, so
Speaker 1: I hope maybe they get divorced and I don't know
Speaker 1: too three years time we get like Bridget Jones is
Speaker 1: feminist Awakening. The movie well, if it's, if it does
Speaker 1: the MoMA mi A schedule, there will be Renee will
Speaker 1: play like Margot, Robbie's mom or whatever, and will be
Speaker 1: their kids. It would be kind of fun if Renee
Speaker 1: or if Bridget, Sorry, they're one and the same. If
Speaker 1: Bridget had like an extremely like militant feminist daughter and
Speaker 1: then was like learning retroactively from her daughter and they
Speaker 1: were bumped here it is. I'm like, Helen, I've got
Speaker 1: an idea. Well, speaking of writings and such, Amy, first
Speaker 1: of all, thank you so much for being here and
Speaker 1: things nipples um uh. Tell us about your book that's
Speaker 1: coming out soon. How can people get it? How can
Speaker 1: people follow totally? It's called Notes from the Bathroom Line.
Speaker 1: It's a big collection of humor writing by a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty Women in Comedy. Jamie's in it, um and
Speaker 1: Caitlin's not. But it' because I didn't know Caitlin and
Speaker 1: now I feel horrible. Um. And So you can order
Speaker 1: it from wherever you can go to notes from the
Speaker 1: bathroom line dot com. It makes it very easy to
Speaker 1: preorder it, especially from female owned in the bookstores. UM.
Speaker 1: And it comes out March sixte Baby amazing, highly recommended.
Speaker 1: We're we're gonna post a little more about the book
Speaker 1: on our social media as well, because there's so much
Speaker 1: overlap between women in the book and Bechtel cast guests
Speaker 1: so well. I love the Otsco um Austin Powers episode
Speaker 1: so good, she's amazing champion. The fact that she's only
Speaker 1: been on to cover Mike Myers vehicles left so so straight,
Speaker 1: Like it's just something. And at this point of like
Speaker 1: do we stop like or do we double down? I'm like, Okay, Otsco,
Speaker 1: you're coming on for the cat and the hat. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it is what it is our number one requested movie
Speaker 1: that we cover. Literally no one has ever requested. I
Speaker 1: was like, that is so straight. I couldn't. I was like,
Speaker 1: we did Wayne's World by the other Mike Myers movies
Speaker 1: I just ran out, so gosh, there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: offensive ones where he's doing a weird character and or accent. Oh,
Speaker 1: let's skip those. Let's do a cat in the hat.
Speaker 1: I'll email her please. Um. You can follow us on
Speaker 1: social media. You can subscribe to our patreon ak Matreon
Speaker 1: at patreon dot com slash Spectel Cast, and it is
Speaker 1: five dollars a month that gets you access to two
Speaker 1: bonus episodes every month, plus the entire back catalog and
Speaker 1: m And then check out our merch a dot com
Speaker 1: slash the Bechtel Cast. Get a mask, and then where
Speaker 1: two of them? And then we're two of them? And
Speaker 1: you know we we don't say this enough, but why
Speaker 1: don't you go on you know iTunes or whatever? Give
Speaker 1: us give us, speaking of needing nipples, give us some
Speaker 1: more ratings, give us some stars, preferably five out of five. Um. Anyway, Um, cheerio,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Bye,