PLOT

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is ecstatic about her new relationship with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). However, Bridget's confidence is shattered when she meets Mark's assistant, the beautiful, slim, quick-witted Rebecca Gillies (Jacinda Barrett). At her job on TV morning show Sit-Up Britain, Bridget crosses paths with her ex, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), and is offered a position alongside Cleaver in a new travel series. Bridget initially refuses, declaring Daniel a "deceitful, sexist, disgusting specimen of humanity," but eventually signs on, despite her friends' misgivings.

Bridget is delighted when Mark invites her to his "Law Council Dinner," believing he will propose afterward. However, a series of fashion/cosmetic mishaps make the evening a debacle, culminating in the team trivia quiz: Bridget makes a critical error on a question about Madonna, which Rebecca Gillies wins, leaving Bridget thoroughly deflated.

After the dinner, Mark and Bridget argue and she leaves in a huff. Mark goes to Bridget's apartment, apologizes, and tells her he loves her for the first time. Later that night, Mark invites Bridget on a ski holiday to Lech, Austria. On the slopes, she learns Rebecca recommended the vacation spot and that she is there as well with a few other colleagues. Bridget has a pregnancy scare since her period is late, but after an argument over the upbringing and education of their future children, the pregnancy test proves negative. Returning home, Bridget and Mark attend a lunch with their parents, where Bridget is hurt by Mark's dismissal of their prospective marriage.

Bridget overhears a suspicious message from Rebecca on Mark's answering machine and dissects it with her friends, who advise her to confront him; Bridget does, Mark refuses "to dignify the question with an answer," and Bridget breaks up with him. She travels to Thailand with her friend, Shazza (Sally Phillips) and Daniel Cleaver to film "The Smooth Guide." Bridget and Daniel visit several exotic locations and flirtily reconnect, but Bridget's trust in Daniel is again demolished by the arrival of a prostitute he ordered, and she realizes he has not changed his boorish ways.

Shazza has a fling with the much younger Jed (Paul Nicholls), who gives her an ivory tusk as a gift to take back to Britain, which winds up in Bridget's bag. When security dogs at the airport detect a large stash of cocaine inside the tusk, Bridget is arrested and sent to a Thai prison and locked in a cell with almost 50 other Thai female inmates. Feeling low and scared but glad at the friendliness of the inmates, Bridget shares relationship advice with the other inmates and teaches them to sing and dance to Madonna's "Like a Virgin."

Mark arrives to tell Bridget that her release has been put in motion. After confirming Jed as the true perpetrator and that Bridget "spent the night" with Daniel Cleaver, he declares that her sex life does not interest him; Bridget does not correct his presumption, and he departs, leaving Bridget certain he no longer loves her. Back in Britain, Mark confronts Daniel for abandoning Bridget in Thailand, and they fight outside an art gallery in Kensington Gardens. Daniel swears off Bridget for good and sarcastically suggests to Mark, "Why don't you just marry her?"

Bridget arrives at Heathrow Airport as an international human rights celebrity. She is greeted by her parents, who have been busy planning their vow renewal ceremony. At home, Bridget is surprised by her friends, who reveal that Mark personally tracked down the drug trafficker Jed, secured his custody and extradition, and forced him to admit Bridget's innocence. Hopeful that Mark still loves her, Bridget immediately runs to his house. She finds Rebecca there and assumes she is romantically involved with Mark, but Rebecca reveals that she is actually infatuated with Bridget and kisses her; though flattered, Bridget politely turns her down.

Bridget confronts Mark at his legal chambers and asks him to give her another chance. Mark proposes to Bridget and she accepts. The film ends with Bridget's parents renewing their vows and Bridget catching the bouquet.

CAST

Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones

Colin Firth as Mark Darcy

Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver

Gemma Jones as Mrs. Pamela Jones

Jim Broadbent as Mr. Colin Jones

Celia Imrie as Una Alconbury

James Faulkner as Uncle Geoffrey

Jacinda Barrett as Rebecca Gillies

Sally Phillips as Sharon "Shazza"

Shirley Henderson as Jude

James Callis as Tom

Neil Pearson as Richard Finch

Donald Douglas as Admiral Darcy

Shirley Dixon as Mrs. Darcy

David Verrey as Giles

Jeremy Paxman as Himself

Ian McNeice as Quizmaster

Jessica Stevenson as Magda

Paul Nicholls (special participation) as Jed

Wolf Kahler as Commentator

Catherine Russell as Camilla

Ting-Ting Hu as Thai prostitute

Jason Watkins as Charlie Parker-Knowles

Vee Vimolmal as phrao

Patrick Baladi as Flight attendant

Neil Dudgeon as Taxi driver

Pui Fan Lee and Melissa Ashworth as Thai jail girls

ADDITIONAL INFIRMATION

based on Helen Fielding's 1999 novel of the same name

the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)