BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (2001). At the start of Sharon Maguire's amusing adaptation of Helen Fielding's bestselling 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary, the thirtysomething single working girl on the prowl resolves to eat less, smoke less, drink less, and steer clear of appealing bad boys. It's a coming of age, except the endearingly obsessive Bridget, played expertly by the newly pudgy Renée Zellweger (who pulls off a believable British accent), never quite makes it. The film is at its best when the characters are at their worst -- making impromptu speeches in front of the boss, saying "I love you" too soon, just generally not getting it. And where tripping out of cars, wearing the wrong thing, blurting out embarrassing come-ons, and getting sloshed could have been played for cheap slapstick, Maguire turns the blubbering and the blubbery thighs into successful satire. British bumbling bad boy Hugh Grant shines as Bridget's seductively sleazy boss; so does Colin Firth as the dark-horse candidate for everyone's favorite "singleton."

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