When we last caught up with Bridget Jones in 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby, she wound up marrying her longtime love Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) after it turned out he was indeed the father of her son William. (She’d also had a one-night stand with Jack Qwant, played by Patrick Dempsey, and for a minute she she wasn’t sure who the dad actually was.)
So was it happily ever after for our favorite bumbling Brit? Not so fast. Just as Bridget Jones, played by Renée Zellweger, noted in the first film, 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that when one part of your life starts going okay, another falls spectacularly to pieces.”
In the fourth book and new movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, everything in Bridget’s life has indeed fallen to pieces.
We find her reeling from the tragic death of her husband, Mark Darcy, who died four years earlier during a humanitarian trip to Sudan. (He returns to this film in Bridget’s mind only.)
She is struggling with her grief and life as a single mom to their two kids, Billy, 9, and Mabel, 4. Her house is a mess, her hair is a mess, she’s a mess — similar to the original film, albeit much sadder.
However, with the encouragement of her friends (Jude, Shazza and Tom are back!) and her former TV producer colleagues, Bridget decides to take her beloved dad’s advice and lean into life again. Similarly to the first film, you truly root for her to succeed.
As Bridget goes back to work as a producer, she hires a type-A nanny (played by Nico Parker) and changes out of her pajamas and back into regular clothes. She even allows her friend and work colleague Miranda (Sarah Soleman) to set her up with a Tinder account, where she matches with the sexy 28-year-old Roxster, played by White Lotus breakout Leo Woodall.
Though dating (and having sex again) is daunting, Roxster ends up being just what Bridget needs to get her groove back. The two embark on a fun and breezy summer fling that brings back Bridget’s smile and is the envy of all her friends. But is a hunky, sensitive and funny guy like Roxster too good to be true? Though he means well, in the end, the age gap is a difficult workaround.
However, at the same time, Bridget has been forming a subtle friendship with her son’s science teacher Mr. Walliker, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. (In his first-ever real romantic comedy lead, and he is excellent and charming at it.)
Though Mr. Walliker is uptight and rigid in his scientific thinking, he has a heart-to-heart with Bridget’s son Billy, who is heavily missing his dad and also worried he’ll forget about him. This is the moment to bring your tissues — and also the moment that Bridget begins to see Mr. Walliker in a new light.
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Though the subject matter is heavy at times, this is, of course, still a comedy, and the pacing is truly reminiscent of the first film: Hot mess finds herself with two potential suitors, does well at work again, leans on friends and chosen family for support.
Plus there are plenty of laughs. Jude, Shazza and Tom are still happy to take her out for margaritas and talk about sex and their love lives.
Emma Thompson reprises her role from the third film as the no-nonsense but hilarious OB-GYN Dr. Rawling, and Hugh Grant is perhaps the most delightful return character, still playing the caddish Daniel Cleaver. This time around he’s a wonderful friend to Bridget and a funny uncle to her children. While he’s still dating very young models, even he decides that there might be something to this family life thing after all.
Mad About the Boy is enjoyable as it doesn’t try too hard to be over-the-top or funny or even too sappy. The level of emotion is fitting, and Zellweger is relatable as Bridget. (Scared of the overachieving moms at school, nervous about her middle-aged body being naked again, has embraced her dark roots and messy hair.) Fans of the original will also enjoy a few easter eggs: Keep an eye out for the see-through top Bridget wore to the book party in the first, and a reference to her “silly little boots.”
The message is also similar to the first: Nothing in life is ever perfect, but we still like some things, like our Bridget Jones movies, just as they are.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is streaming on Peacock Feb. 13.
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