It’s been 25 years since Bridget Jones’s Diary and Renée Zellweger is back once again sporting probably the most impressive British accent by an American captured on film.
The double-Oscar winner returns as her bumbling Londoner, having married Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy after he accidentally knocked her up in 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby.
However, tragedy has struck as Bridget has been widowed for a couple of years and is now a menopausal single mother with two kids.
Loosely adapted from screenwriter Helen Fielding’s third Bridget Jones novel, Mad About About the Boy follows our heroine embarking on an awkward adventure into dating apps (egged on by returning sidekicks like Sally Phillips’ Shazzer), as she stumbles upon Leo Woodall’s toy boy totty Roxster.
Of course, things aren’t as straightforward as they seem, as Chiwetel Ejiofor’s rationalist teacher, Mr Wallaker, is also in the complicated love triangle.
If that wasn’t enough, Hugh Grant returns as naughty womaniser Daniel Cleaver, having survived being killed off in the last film. He may now only be an old platonic friend of Bridget’s, but that doesn’t stop the old Casanova from edging his usual thin line between charm and politically incorrect humour. Speaking of which, Bridget Jones films have been a staple of British rom-com hilarity, and the ever-excellent Zellweger helms several belly laughs in this feel-good and lighthearted fourthquel.
Yet it may come as a surprise that Mad About the Boy is also the most emotional Bridget Jones entry to date. Firth briefly makes a couple of tear-jerking cameos as Bridget and her two children adapt to life without husband and father. Nevertheless, the film remains life-affirming with a hopeful and optimistic future outlook, as director Michael Morris balances the more sentimental moments with the farcical hijinks rather well.
On the downside, the movie drags a bit in its overlong two-hour runtime. And although original director Sharon Maguire’s first and third films remain the best (and funniest) overall, there’s still enough to enjoy here in this latest Brit chick flick, which is plenty accessible for men as it is for women this Valentine’s. And given the fact that pre-sales for this film are bigger in the UK than they were for billion-dollar hit Barbie, we have a feeling this won’t be the last we see of Zellweger’s great comic role.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is out in UK cinemas from February 13, 2024.