Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy - Review 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

THE quick verdict on this fourth Bridget Jones movie is that it’s a bit of a mess, by equal turns cringe inducing and heartfelt, much like the central character herself.

Dig deeper and there’s a lot to say. On the negative side, it’s humour often feels desperate, sometimes tone deaf (particularly when taking aim at the culture wars) and not particularly funny (lacking the freshness and spontaneity of the still classic original movie and its brilliantly observed pratfalls).

There’s also too much of a preoccupation with sex and the need to get laid, as if that were the sole remedy for overcoming life’s obstacles. Indeed, as much as the underlying message of Bridget Jones is finding beauty in reality (warts and all), rather than the superficiality of body image and staying young, this film frequently feels like it’s falling victim to its own message.

The plotting, too, is overly telegraphed (it’s not hard to guess who Bridget is going to end up with) and the tone is all over the place, veering from clunky or absurd one minute, to heart-breaking the next. The transitions can jar, unlike better examples such as Netflix comedy The Man On The Inside or even Apple’s Shrinking.

But those two are worth mentioning, in particular, because they both deal with grief. And it is grief that plays the biggest part of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boyd, and why it still manages to endear and even succeed as much as it does.

The film picks up four years after the love of Bridget’s life, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), had died, leaving her as the widowed mum of two kids (Casper Knopf and Mila Jankovic). The subsequent story follows her attempts to ‘move on’, primarily by rediscovering her mojo via a sexed up relationship with a younger man named Roxster (Leo Woodall), while also getting back to work and hanging out with her lifelong crowd (which includes Hugh Grant’s still caddish Daniel Cleaver, now a regular babysitter).

There’s also the challenges of single motherhood to navigate, which includes the dreaded school run and the proximity it brings her to seemingly judgmental science teacher Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

After a poignant opening in which the film pays a very tearful and respectful tribute to Firth’s late Darcy (the first of several tear inducing sequences) the film sets about getting Bridget laid, while still piling on the agony for her with all manner of social pratfalls.

Woodall is game for the challenge of playing eye candy for the menopausal ladies even though the script doesn’t really allow much room for anything else, while the film coasts through its middle stage attempting to recapture the magic of that first film, with fleeting success.

But once things get more serious, Bridget Jones ups her game, allowing her to really confront her grief and find her true place in the world. And here’s where the tear ducts really get a workout.

Bridget’s acceptance of her life as it is, as opposed what anyone feels it should be, is nicely observed and allows Zellweger the opportunity to juggle her feelings of loss with her own sense of self as both a middle aged woman and a mother. This, in turn, allows her son (really nicely played by Knopf) to confront his own sense of loss for his father.

Zellweger is tremendously affecting when giving in to her sorrow and tapping into her true feelings, while also affording her co-stars some opportunities to shine here too. Hence, Grant has a couple of scene-stealing moments that are similarly bittersweet (a hospital scene, especially, brings some welcome depth to Cleaver), while Ejiofor finally comes into his own as both a potential love interest and, more tellingly, a father figure.

The performances therefore earn your tears (far more than they actually do your laughter) and help to ensure that Bridget Jones and her crew continue to endear themselves to you as much as they did when you first met [most of] them. It also ensures the film emerges as the strongest entry in the series since that first outing. Just make sure you bring a good supply of handkerchiefs.