Though Bridget is happily ensconced in the arms of the lovely Mark Darcy her petty jealousies are starting to get the best of her, and their relationship. Chief among these is her suspicions about Mark's long-legged intern, who, on top of being gorgeous, has a knack for doing everything right. To make matters worse Bridget's old fling, and former boss, Daniel Cleaver, arrives on the scene. [TRAILERS]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

The most dramatic difference between the personal and energetic “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and its confused sequel, “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” can be found in its title.

Missing from the majority of “Reason” is the very diary that was the first film’s saving grace, the one device that was able to keep its melodramatic romance and its neurotic central character grounded and believable.

Naturally then, as one might then expect, without this diary and without these personal insights, the story feels more manufactured, labored, and unbelievable.

The movie starts promisingly enough, with the plump Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) recounting her current state of happiness in her diary. She talks of her life, her boyfriend (Colin Firth) and how for three weeks now she has been on top of the world.

Of course, that all changes when a disastrous dinner date puts a wedge between her and her steady, and when the crude and crass Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) from the first “Jones” reenters her life as her co-anchor for a travel news show.

Together, they journey to Bangkok, passions flare, miscommunications lead to Jones’ arrest, and after a few weeks she is finally able to escape the country and come back home.

The more I think about this convoluted story, and its preposterous climax, the more I am annoyed by the decisions screenwriters Andrew Davies, Helen Fielding, Richard Curtis and Adam Brooks made.

The movie opens with Jones as a fascinating character, needy for love but also intelligent enough in her diary to dissect her own failings and recognize the silliness of her situations. But any chance we have of learning something more about ourselves or about the absurd world of dating is undone by a story that spins its mindless wheels, with nothing interesting to say.

Cleaver’s’s reintroduction to the story would be interesting if it truly challenged Jones, but instead it seems to be a momentary blip on the radar and is soon forgotten. Things are not made better by the fact that Jones and her boyfriend do not display anything remotely close to passion, and the supposed climax of the film is so dry and unemotional that I started wondering if she was truly in love, or simply going through the routine.

But it’s around the time that Jones finds herself in a Thai prison when I realized that not only was I not enjoying myself anymore, but I was starting to get bored and offended.

If this was a slapstick comedy, the goofy depiction of the Thai prisoners, and their extended dance sequence to Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” would likely be much funnier. But here, in a comedy that starts as a personal ode to lonely singles, and in a drama that asks us to time and again feel empathy and sympathy for this naïve and sweet woman, this prison sequence is just too much.

Similarly, Zellweger’s performance is hindered by a story that loses sight of Jones as a character. In the first half of the movie, Zellweger blends perfectly into the role and Jones emerges as a sort of tragic, everyday hero, her balance of idealism and insecurities making her the memorable character she is.

But just like the story, Jones feels like a stretch in the film’s later portions – like a mockery of her former self.

As moviegoers, we have seen far too many unbelievable romances filled with unbelievable people, saying the buzz words and going through the motions that trigger our emotions but leave us empty intellectually.

The first “Bridget Jones” used the diary to give the story an added level of humanity and dimension. The second seems to have run out of interesting things to say.

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