Renee Zellweger falls in a special category when it comes to my tastes. She’s an actor that I really, really don’t like. I’ve never thought she was all that attractive, and her career-making role in “Jerry McGuire” left me cold. But I have to give the girl credit. She is one heck of an actress. Even though I don’t like Renee Zellweger, I often like her films, and I think she does a bang-up job in them.

Such is the case with “Bridge Jones’s Diary.” Forget the fact that she’s a Texan playing a Brit. Well past the accent, she commits to the character and gives it her all. Without Zellweger, this film would fall flat. It also helps that she has a saucy chemistry with both co-stars Colin Firth and Hugh Grant.

The film follows an overweight London woman who, frustrated by her failure to find a husband, starts off the year with some resolutions and begins a diary. She comes out of her shell and hooks up with her scoundrel boss at a publishing firm, but soon finds herself falling for a stuffy barrister. Soon, Bridget Jones finds her would-be spinster life turned into a sexual battleground.

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” is basically a British “Sex in the City” with the characters acting just as unrealistically as they do in the American show. After all, how many fat girls do you know would dress up as a Playboy bunny at a tarts-and-vicars party, let alone not change when she realizes the theme was abandoned without telling her. But the popularity of these stories comes not from what women really do, but what they really want to do.

The film is an emasculating romantic comedy, which is actually quite refreshing against the backdrop of formula features. I found the characters extreme but funny, and the situations preposterous but hilarious. And as an added bonus, it reveals plenty of insight into the female psyche. Just be careful about naughty emails at work to your female coworkers because sexual harassment laws in this country have a little more bite than the ones that cover folks like Hugh Grant.

If you’re a DVD-phile, even if you’re not into the whole Bridget Jones phenomenon, this is an excellent disc to own. The new Collector’s Series released by Miramax has a ton a great features to it. In addition to a competent commentary track, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette, there are a healthy amount of creative and fun features as well.

There are new featurettes on “The Bridget Phenomenon” and “The Young and the Mateless,” which generally feature bitter, thirtysomething women bemoaning the fact that they haven’t found a mate yet considering themselves the anointed ones. There’s also a behind-the-scenes look at the make-up in the film.

Of course, there’s a strong marketing push for the Bridget Jones sequel as well as TV advertising spots. There’s also a handful of glowing reviews for “Bridget Jones’s Diary” - as if you need convincing to see the movie. (After all, you either rented or bought the DVD by the time you read them.)

Two features jumped out to me as I made my way through the disk. The first was a clever info feature that provided definitions for Bridget’s colorful British lexicon. But the real meat of the DVD extras comes in the more than 100 original “Bridget Jones’s Diary” columns by creator Helen Fielding. You practically have a book on screen to give you the origins and history of Miss Jones.



Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Widescreen (1.85:1) - Enhanced for 16x9 televisions. French language track. Spanish subtitles. English subtitles for the hearing impaired.