A `REASON' TO BELIEVE PIG POO ASIDE, `BRIDGET JONES' SEQUEL HAS A CERTAIN EMOTIONAL APPEAL FOR ITS MUCH PUT-UPON STAR AND HER CASTMATES.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Staff Writer

Day one of shooting ``Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' found star Renee Zellweger, a newly minted Oscar-winning actress, lying in a pig pen, wallowing in, as she puts it, ``pig poo.'' As director Beeban Kidron was explaining how she was going to shoot the scene, one of the pigs wandered over to Zellweger and started getting friendly with her leg.

``I have to say, that was the proper ice-breaker for this movie,'' Kidron says. ``It set the tone for everything that was to follow.''

Indeed, the new ``Bridget Jones'' movie plays as an unremitting parade of humiliation for its title character and lead actress. Zellweger famously gained 20-odd pounds for the 2001 comedy about a self-doubting, calorie-conscious singleton looking for love. Here, she not only regained the weight, but she also let herself be photographed in even more unflattering poses and situations.

Quite frankly, through much of the film, she looks pretty bad. Which, of course, is good.

``If you're not going to become the character and be the character, then I don't really see the point in undertaking the experience,'' Zellweger says. ``I have so much respect for this character and what she represents. I didn't want to compromise that in any way.''

Says Kidron: ``Renee has a stunning lack of vanity. We all know that it would be nice to look tall and thin, walk gracefully, do the right thing and say the right thing all the time. Bridget has a big ass and a big mouth and says the wrong thing and promptly falls over. And for women in the audience, they say, 'That is me.' It's a manifestation of our fear of how we fall short. And she's our favorite girl to fall short.''

The next chapter

In ``Edge of Reason,'' which is loosely based on Helen Fielding's follow-up book to the mega-selling ``Bridget Jones's Diary,'' this favorite girl has been with her flawless boyfriend, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), for six weeks, four days and seven hours, enabling her to enjoy 71 ``ecstatic shags.''

``I found my happy ending and nothing can spoil it,'' Bridget says in the film's opening moments.

Of course, if that were true, there would be no movie. Complications ensue, as they must, uncertainty returns, as does womanizing heel Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). What happens next is ``basically very familiar,'' as Firth puts it.

In other words, it's a sequel.

The first ``Bridget Jones'' movie did well enough ($71 million stateside, another $208 million worldwide) to warrant a follow-up. And they didn't have to come up with a plot from scratch since Fielding had already written the book. One problem: None of the principals wanted any part of it.

``I don't think anyone recalls having said yes to this job,'' Firth says. ``It was just a momentum that happened and it seemed inevitable. Not unlike getting your draft papers, really.''

Adds Grant: ``I was very difficult. I'm always quite difficult, but I was impossible on this one. There was a lot of coming and going about the script and my part. I did a lot of work on keeping the cleverness of Daniel. I always thought one of the mitigating factors for him in the first film was that he wasn't just an ass----. He was quite a clever ass----. We wanted to maintain that.''

Still, Grant, when pressed, is not exactly enthusiastic about the prospect of working (he has taken only two small roles - this and ``Love Actually''- since 2002's ``About a Boy'') on cinema's second chapters.

``They're not to be automatically despised,'' Grant says of sequels. ``There's 'The Godfather,' he throws out nervously, hmmm, wracking his brains for another example.''

Someone in the room offers up the ``Lord of the Rings'' movies.

``I've never seen 'The Lord of the Rings,' unfortunately,'' Grant says. ``But, yeah, I've heard from some children that part two is better.''

A challenge for Renee

The biggest hurdle for Zellweger wasn't putting the pounds back on or the pig poo or the scene that required her to ski backward down a steep mountain. It was a plot point that she couldn't wrap her head around, one that had Bridget pining for a marriage proposal after only knowing Mark Darcy for a few weeks.

``It wasn't something that I found easy to justify,'' Zellweger says. ``I think she is aware that it is inappropriate. At that desperate time, women know you don't bring up, 'Are you seeing other people?' at six weeks, much less, 'Are we in this for the long haul or not?' No matter how desperately you want to ask, 'Are you committed?' you don't do it. It's breaking the rules.

``But,'' Zellweger continues, ``you love Bridget for her inability to sometimes refrain from those outbursts. We can relate to standing in the hallway and wanting to know: 'So do you like me like that or not?' And we love that she just goes ahead and blurts it out in this ridiculous way that makes her seem like she's not strong. But she never fails to get up and move forward. That's strength, to me.''

And that resiliency in the face of her own foibles and fears goes a long way to explaining Ms. Jones' continuing appeal.

``Women identify very heavily with her, obviously,'' Firth says. ``The men are the devices who are seen through her eyes. It's quite an interesting position to be in because very often it's not that way. It's much more often the male protagonist and the female device. This is something that was deliberately created through the eyes of a woman and the female directors who made the movies.''

Says Kidron: ``I spent four months filming in various degrees of pig (poo) and then, at the London premiere, I broke a heel on the red carpet. Bridget is always with me, whether I want her to be or not.''

Whether Bridget will continue to be with moviegoers is open to question. Given the fact that the leads had to be coerced (an $11 million payday for Zellweger helped) into making this film, prospects for another chapter seem unlikely.

``In the abstract, it's unthinkable,'' Firth says. ``I can't think where a sequel would go unless Helen wrote another book. The only way I could possibly think it would be interesting is if it showed us in an advanced state of decrepitude. A deteriorated Mark Darcy - and we're on the way to that - and Daniel Cleaver and Bridget puncturing the fairy tale completely might be an interesting way to take it. But I'd be quite content to live my life without another one.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Dear Diary...

Back for more, Bridget Jones is at `The Edge of Reason'

(2) Bridget (Renee Zellweger) soaks up the wonders of Thailand in ``Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.''

(3) It looks like romantic bliss for Bridget and her boyfriend, lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

(4) Hugh Grant reprises his role as Bridget's former boss and womanizing heartthrob, Daniel Cleaver, in ``The Edge of Reason.''

(5) Chocolate provides solace for Bridget and her pals, Shazzer (Sally Phillips, left), Jude (Shirley Henderson) and Tom (James Callis).