Please note: this review contains minor spoilers for the film.
I was equal parts pleased and concerned when I saw the trailer for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy late last year. It’s been nine long years since we last saw Bridget (Renee Zellweger) in 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby. As someone who watched Sex and the City religiously upon its release each week as a teen, and is now cringe-watching the spin-off And Just Like That, I decided to grab some girlfriends and check this new film out, hoping against hope we wouldn’t be cringe-watching from behind our hands.
I will preface this review by saying I will forgive a franchise I feel sentimental about of rather a lot (I mean, I’m still excited for season three of And Just Like That despite some truly terrible storylines in the first two seasons). Before we get into how generous I was feeling when I wrote this, let’s start at the beginning.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy comes to us after 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and 2016’s aforementioned Bridget Jones’s Baby. Directed by Michael Morris, who wasn’t involved in the previous films, the screenwriters (original book series author Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan) treat us to many Bridget-isms, like her consistently messy hair, some wardrobe items and setups from previous iterations (a kiss in the snow while wearing inappropriate clothing), which makes this film feel very much of the Jones-verse.
We join Bridget on the *spoiler alert* fourth anniversary of the death of her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who was killed while on a humanitarian mission in Sudan. She has also suffered another significant loss, the death of her father (Jim Broadbent), and stopped work at some point, too. Bridget is single mum to two children, Billy (Casper Knopf), age 9 and Mabel (Mila Jankovic), age 4. There’s a scene soundtracked to David Bowie’s Modern Love, which very quickly demonstrates the chaos, mess, love and care present in their home.
Early on we get to catch up with old flame Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), now ‘Uncle Daniel’, who hasn’t changed a jot and is still the same fiendish rogue with women of any age. More on him later. Bridget’s friendships are still strong with Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Tom (James Callis) and Jude (Shirley Henderson), but they only play a minor role in this film. We aren’t privy to more than a TL;DR: Shazzer has an angry podcast (perfect), Tom is living off royalties from his one-hit wonder, Jude is some sort of CEO with the same old boy troubles. Like many other incidental characters, they’re there to serve Bridget and her story.
The film follows Bridget as she meets a ‘boy’, new beau on the block Roxster (Leo Woodall) who is over 20 years her junior. They embark on a summer romance, while Bridget also returns to work as a television producer, and engages the services of a ‘perfect’ nanny (Chloe, played by Nico Parker) for her children.
Roxster jumping in to save a dog from a swimming pool (who seems perfectly happy swimming) sets up the perfect moment for all of Bridget’s friends to ooh and aah over his abs, when he naturally strips off his shirt in the middle of a party (cringe level mounting…).
Man of science Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a good foil for Bridget’s clumsy quirkiness, and they have some fun scenes together. Ejiofor gives a very warm performance and I enjoyed the growth of his character.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the film’s gentle, quite profound treatment of the losses Bridget has suffered. Mark Darcy looms large throughout, his character making a few poignant appearances. There was a particularly beautiful scene on the heath with balloons. As someone who experienced the loss of a parent at a young age, seeing the impact of Mark Darcy’s death on his kids was tear-jerking indeed. Hearing other sniffles around the cinema, the pathos was perhaps universally felt.
Where the film falls down for me is in its dated representation of social mores. Daniel Cleaver has continued to age, yet the age of his conquests has remained the same – very young, which feels more than a little off. At one point he pinches Mrs Jones Senior’s bottom, which is supposed to provoke a laugh. A flush of the cheeks and an “oh you” doesn’t play with me anymore… there’s something about Bridget Jones’s world that seems deeply rooted in the early 2000s, pre-#MeToo. There’s also the matter of Daniel showing the children how to make a ‘Dirty Bitch’ cocktail – with alcohol – then leaving them holding the shaker.
There was rather a lot of bending the characters to serve the story, which isn’t new to this franchise, it just all felt a bit too easy. Overall, though, the deeper and heavier emotions explored in the film are nicely done, demonstrating the maturing of Bridget’s character, and there are enough fun moments to keep the audience entertained. Renee Zellweger gives another great performance as Bridget, acting as a strong and highly likeable anchor for the film. All this left me feeling forgiving of the few cringeworthy moments.
I left the cinema with my sentimental enjoyment of Bridget Jones intact. If Bridget is there to serve, I will keep coming back for more.
GEMMA SIDNEY
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is now showing in cinemas Australia-wide.
