Production notes

Working Title Films acquired the film rights of the novel in 1997 before it became a best-seller.

Actresses who were considered for the role of Bridget Jones were Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett, Emily Watson, Rachel Weisz (who was considered too beautiful for the role), and Cameron Diaz. Toni Collette declined the role because she was on Broadway starring in The Wild Party at the time. Kate Winslet was also considered, but, at 24, the producers decided she was too young. Zellweger's casting in late May 2000 concluded a two-year search. Producer Eric Fellner explained that she "brings enormous character and conviction to the part". Director Sharon Maguire said of Zellweger, "I saw in Renee a gift few people have, that she was able to straddle comedy and emotion." Zellweger worked on her accent with Barbara Berkery, who had helped Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love. She also gained 20 pounds (9 kg) for the part. To prepare for the role, Zellweger worked at the producers' request at London book publishers Picador as a trainee in the publicity department. Before the film was released, a considerable amount of controversy surrounded the casting of the American Zellweger as what some saw as a quintessentially British heroine. However, her performance, including her south-eastern English accent, is widely considered to be of a high standard. In July 2000, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant were cast as the male leads. The director of the film, Maguire, one of Fielding's friends, was reportedly the base for the character "Shazzer" (English slang for Sharon), as mentioned in the behind the scenes commentary on the DVD. In the film, Shazzer is played by Sally Phillips.

Principal photography began on 16 May 2000 and concluded on 8 August 2000. The crew spent six weeks shooting in and around London. Locations used included Shad Thames where Bridget and Daniel have their first date, the Royal Courts of Justice, St Pancras railway station and Tower Bridge. Scenes were filmed at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire where Bridget and Daniel ventured to for their mini-break. Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire served as the Darcys' home. Stansted Airport doubled as JFK Airport in New York City, while Syon House in Brentford featured as the venue for the anniversary party. The crew filmed for four days at Snowshill in Gloucestershire which featured as the home of Bridget Jones's family. After six weeks of shooting on location, the crew moved to Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

Bridget Jones's Diary grossed $71.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $210.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $282 million, against a production budget of $25 million. The film made $10.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing third. Dropping just 5.7% in its second weekend, the film made $10.2 million and finished first the following weekend.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 164 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Though there was controversy over the choice of casting, Zellweger's Bridget Jones is a sympathetic, likable, funny character, giving this romantic comedy a lot of charm." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Much acclaim was given to Zellweger's performance, with Paul Clinton of CNN writing that Zellweger "nails Jones's London accent while simultaneously delivering a performance bursting with power and brimming with heartfelt emotion". Mark Adams of The Hollywood Reporter praised Zellweger's knack for physical comedy, and The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter said the film lets her "show both her frantic awkwardness and her tender decency". The New York Times's Stephen Holden called the film "a delicious piece of candy whose amusing package is scrawled with bons mots distantly inspired by Jane Austen", and added "Ms. Zellweger accomplishes the small miracle of making Bridget both entirely endearing and utterly real. It is a performance so airy you barely sense the work that must have gone into it." The Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, describing it as "made against all odds into a funny and charming movie that understands the charm of the original, and preserves it". The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw commended Maguire for directing with "chutzpah and style". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Hugh Grant is charming too, luxuriating in naughtiness, taking a holiday from his usual floppy, velvet romantic image as Bridget's caddish boss, Daniel Cleaver." Hunter praised Firth, writing "He's the complete Darcy, and he never wavers. There's no sentimentality, no flirtation with the audience, no final moment of pandering to the niceness gods; he's a cold geek all the way through." Some critics said that in the book's adaptation to the screen, it loses "much of Fielding's irony, nuance and cynicism". Clinton wrote, "While the writers have captured Fielding's sparkling rhythm with words, they've created a bit of havoc with the plotline." Though she gave a positive review, Schwarzbaum opined, "The mess, though, where's the mess? The hysteria, the middle of the night jitters of loneliness? The mess of Bridget's life [in the book] has been tidied, neatened into little piles of mirth and gaiety...The movie never shows us anything about Bridget that's remotely in need of psychological or physical fixing." Felicia Feaster of Creative Loafing expressed that "Bridget's 'why can't I find a husband?' lament" becomes tiresome and "caters to women's lowest expectations and suggests that even the 'modern' 'liberated' woman is a Doris Day closet-case." In contrast, Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com said the film is an improvement on the novel. In a 2021 retrospective piece for the New Statesman, Johanna Thomas-Corr discussed the more outdated aspects of the film, but said that the central performances are what makes the movie timeless. In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 303.