Best-selling Helen Fielding novel translates nicely onto big screen

The film "Bridget Jones's Diary," much like its title character, has been wracked with insecurity since its beginning. Could the singular humor and diary format of the bestselling novel by Helen Fielding be translated into a feature film? Could Renee "you had me at hello" Zellweger pull off the much beloved protagonist, and do so with a believable British accent? Could a novel targeted at single women in their 30s appeal to a general audience?

Could it, indeed?

"Bridget Jones's Diary," the first feature film from documentary director Sharon Maguire, captures the wry, self-deprecating tone of the novel, giving the film several hilarious moments, which are most successful when Bridget's insecurities are on display. That is, of course, what is so appealing about Ms. Jones and why Fielding's novels have engendered such a loyal and wide following.

With her own brand of vocabulary ("singletons," "emotional fuckwit" and "smug marrieds") and her desire to be thin, sexy, emotionally stable and professionally successful, Bridget Jones stepped right into the zeitgeist of post-post-feminist society, where women want careers and independence but still just want to get married. It's a world of "The Rules," of self-help books, of the wish to not "die alone and be found three weeks later, half-eaten by wild dogs," as Bridget says. In fact, it's Bridget's world, and that kind of cultural weight is hard for any film to carry.