Well this was … fun!
Was it high quality? Will it win an Oscar? Heck no! And that’s ok!
If you liked the previous BJ films, I’m confident you’ll like this one. Same tone, same vibes, largely same crew. I laughed and shed a few tears!
Bridget (Renee Zellweger) returns in the titular role, minus her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) who died four years prior, leaving her to raise their young children Billy and Mabel. The film follows the tried and tested formula of two men fighting for a piece of Bridget’s heart, both new gents on the scene rather than the ol’ Mark Darcy v Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) thing. That said, Cleaver does feature in the film and Hugh is so good when he can play camp and naughty. Giving him his own heartstring-pulling storyline was probably unnecessary and cutting that would have been the perfect way to chip 20 minutes out of the film which it could do with.
It’s cheesy, implausible in many parts and it pinches some vibes from Love Actually but all in all, if you’re a fan of the franchise, I reckon you won’t be disappointed. If you don’t have any idea what any of this means and you’ve missed the Bridget Jones boat entirely then give this film a miss, obviously!
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is rated M, runs 125 minutes and opens in cinemas on 13 February.