‘Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy’ Movie Review: A Lovely, Bittersweet Return To Form And Farewell
Photo from Universal Pictures
From Jeremy Kibler
Renée Zellweger has made her return as Helen Fielding’s literary character Bridget Jones twice now with a length of time in between. The third chapter, 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby, was altogether pleasant but unnecessary and kind of vanilla, however, coming twelve years after 2004’s more-of-the-same-but-lesser Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, it still had the endearing Zellweger playing a pregnant Bridget. Nine years later have found Bridget wiser and ready to keep living at middle age, and Zellweger never fails to be charming. Unfairly thrown on streaming rather than in theaters in the U.S., Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the closest, most satisfying match to the 2001 original rather than a case of diminishing returns.
Director Michael Morris (To Leslie) and a trio of screenwriters (Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, and Abi Morgan, adapting from Fielding’s novel of the same name) bring us up to speed on our old friend. Widowed for four years after her husband, human-rights lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), was killed in Sudan, Bridget has learned to raise her two children alone. (Firth does poignantly appear sparingly as a physical memory, and it’s never a hokey device.) Once Bridget finds it in herself to begin her second act, everything falls into place: she’s encouraged to go back to work as a TV producer on a women’s talk show, hosted by Miranda (a likably saucy Sarah Solemani) and Talitha (a dynamite Josette Simon); she starts dating 29-year-old park ranger/“tree adonis” Roxster (Leo Woodall); she hires the ideal nanny (Nico Parker); and she befriends, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Bridget’s son’s science and choir teacher. Besides the occasional imbibing, Bridget realizes there is still life after Mark.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is not just an adorable confection about Bridget having two potential suitors to choose from—though it has a little of that—but a cozy, lovely final chapter to a character who finally finds growth and deserves this happily ever after. Besides the rather sad setup and an infectious wake-up dance and singalong to David Bowie’s “Modern Love,” this is much more melancholy and bittersweet outing. Zellweger never skips a delightful beat as Bridget and yet still adapts to the losses in her life since we last saw her. She is still game for the physical comedy because it wouldn’t be a Bridget Jones movie without the character being in a compromising position, whether it’s a mishap involving a lip serum or getting stuck in a tree.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is a fine substitute for Colin Firth, droll and by-the-book but slightly more affable as Mr. Wallaker, and Leo Woodall is suitably dreamy as Bridget’s younger lover. Revealed to be alive in a newspaper headline before the end credits rolled in the last film, momentarily dead “publishing playboy” Daniel Cleaver is back in a supporting role, and Hugh Grant still brings the classic boorishness but also some much-needed maturity. There’s no real organic reason for killing off and then resurrecting Daniel, but Grant was able to work a few days and made the absolute most of it.
Emma Thompson is very funny in a handful of scenes, reprising her role from the previous film as Bridget’s sardonic gynecologist. Finally, since this is a curtain call, Sally Phillips, James Callis, and Shirley Henderson are back on hand as Bridget’s booziest best friends, as are Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent briefly as Bridget’s parents.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy gets back to the Bridget Jones we know and fell in love with twenty-four years ago. This is comfort food that just wins you over — it’s slightly overlong, even as a farewell to Bridget and friends, but it’s sweet, wistful, and funny.
Rating: 3.5/5
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is currently streaming on Peacock.
