In Theaters

BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY. Directed by Sharon Maguire. Written by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis, based on Fielding’s book. 94 minutes. R.

The first must-see romantic comedy of the year is Sharon Maguire’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” a smart, witty adaptation of Helen Fielding’s best-selling novel that stars Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, a thirtysomething wreck of a British career girl whose fondness for a whole host of unattractive addictions has gone a long way in putting the screws to her romantic life – and her self-esteem.

In what’s essentially a post-feminist take on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” “Bridget,” from a script by Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis, will also remind some of Silvio Narizzano’s “Georgy Girl” and P.J. Hogan’s “Muriel’s Wedding.”

It’s worth seeing for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of Zellweger’s excellent performance as Bridget, a hugely likable mess of ticks and neuroses from London who’s fighting to reclaim her “self” in a society that considers single women over thirty as damaged goods.

Whether falling down drunk, falling hard for third-rate men, or making a general fool of herself in public (and in private), Bridget Jones is never anything less than a vat of vulnerability, a misguided product of unconventional parents (Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent) having relationship problems of their own.

Yet Bridget is at a turning point. Determined to get her life back on track, she decides it’s time to change her life all together. To help keep her focused, she keeps a diary, one that chronicles her battle with her addictions to food, cigarettes, alcohol and men – not to mention with the real enemy in her life: Bridget Jones.

With great energy, style and humor, Maguire takes us into Bridget’s tumultuous journey out of spinsterhood and into the harrowing world of dating. In short order – and with the help of some extremely short skirts- Bridget takes up with her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), a rakish editor at the London publishing house where Bridget works as a publicist. And then with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth, who played Mr. Darcy in the BBC television adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice”), a human-rights barrister and former childhood playmate of Bridget’s who initially finds her to be “verbally incontinent” before ultimately claiming he likes her just the way she is.

Which man will Bridget choose? The answer is predictable from the get-go, but as the quiet war between Cleaver and Darcy comes to fisticuffs in one of the film’s more hilarious scenes, Maguire nevertheless makes Bridget’s quest for a man a ribald good time.

Not enough can be said for Zellweger’s terrific performance as Bridget, particularly since the Texas-born actress became a scapegoat in the British press when it was announced that she’d be playing Fielding’s very British character. Apparently, no one across the pond thought Zellweger could pull off an English accent – which she does nicely, by the way–but the assumption that she wasn’t right for the role simply because she’s American still causes one to pause.

I wonder how many of these people had a problem when their own Vivien Leigh won Academy Awards for her performances as Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” and as Blanche Dubois in “A Streetcare Named Desire.” My guess? Not one teacup was overturned.

Grade: A-

On Video and DVD

THE LADIES MAN. Directed by Reginald Hudlin. Written by Tim Meadows, Dennis McNicholas and Andrew Steele. 84 minutes. R.

Not ready for prime time – and certainly not ready for a feature film – Tim Meadows’ Leon Phelps, the alarmingly horny, Courvoisier- swilling, 1970s lisping lughead he plays on “Saturday Night Live,” isn’t in need of a woman. He’s in need of a script, preferably one that hasn’t plucked its comedic mojo straight out of a toilet.

Once again, “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels has stretched a passably funny sketch to its breaking point with a movie that offers a few laughs, but hardly enough of them.

The director, Reginald Hudlin, working from a script by Meadows, Dennis McNicholas and Andrew Steele, wants his film to be as smooth and as infectious as the funkadelic music he highlights throughout. But a string of bad decisions prevents that from happening.

This is, after all, the sort of film that relies on the sort of sight gags that includes one character being tricked into eating feces and a nun stating on radio that she soon hopes to take the missionary position in – naturally – Bangkok.

Grade: D+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.