Having read the latest Bridget Jones novel Mad About The Boy I was nervous when I heard about the new film but thankfully Bridget Jones’s Baby is based on a series of articles before the new book was published and set just a few years after the second book; so I could erase everything that happened in the third novel from my memory – Men In Black style!
The film opens with a little familiarity, All By Myself and a sofa! So, not too much has changed. Has she stayed the same while the world changes around her? When we left her at the end of The Edge of Reason she had seemingly found her ‘happy ending.’ We catch up with our Bridget on the cusp of her 43rd birthday where the amount of candles on her cake at work could be a health and safety hazard.
She has worked her way up through the ranks and the days of clumsily climbing up firemen’s poles as a roving reporter are behind her, she is now a TV news producer and despite telling Mr Darcy she will “always be a little bit fat” she has dispensed with the enormous knickers and is now at her ideal weight (perhaps something to do with her best friend Tom now running some very hardcore spinning classes! Incidentally I would have liked to have seen more of Tom). Her friends have coupled up and had babies and Auntie Bridget’s life is full of baby showers and christenings and other life events and it is at one of these occasions she bumps into her now ex, Mr Mark Darcy. Cue awkward moments and longing glances.
Turns out Mr Darcy was just too distracted by his work so they went their separate ways and he is now married. How could he?! Bridget is still ‘covered in scales’ and single but enjoys her independence and has fun with friends, one of whom who invites her on a relaxing weekend away without actually telling her it is a muddy festival rather than a spa so our ill-prepared, inappropriately dressed heroine gets stuck in (literally) and hilarity ensues along with a nice pop star cameo.
She is challenged to sleep with the first man she sees and thank goodness it is the charming and handsome Jack (Patrick Dempsey), she at first seems immune to his flattery but then drunkenly wanders into the wrong yurt (we’ve all done it, haven’t we?) After learning her lesson about not getting involved after a sexual fling (perhaps from a certain Daniel Cleaver, who is sadly absent from the movie but gets a couple of mentions… no spoilers!), she leaves in the morning and makes no plans to see him again, losing her welly in typically Cinderella fashion. Ships in the night. ‘What happens in unnamed generic Festival stays in unnamed generic festival’.
A week or so later at the party after a christening, her fellow Godparent Mark Darcy (seems strange to not refer to him by his full name) confesses he is getting a divorce and he misses her, and well, ‘what happens at after party of christening, stays at after party of christening’. Except, if only Bridget had not relied on dodgy biodegradable ‘eco condoms’ that have been in her bag for ten years! ‘Tick Tock’ as the nosey relatives teased her in the previous instalments.
Refreshingly when the single Bridget finds out she’s pregnant, she’s happy with no ‘how terrible to be a single mother’ drama. She just needs to work out who the father is! Emma Thompson is wonderful as the wise-cracking doctor who has seen this situation before and sees through Bridget’s attempt to try and find out ‘which time with her special man’ made her in the family way. I really enjoyed the gentle rivalry between the two possible dads and was bracing myself for a hilarious fight scene like in the previous films, but we are all grown up and much more mature now aren’t we, no such nonsense, just gentlemanly carrying of bags and phones and feeding her wheatgrass smoothies. If only she could keep them both!
Bridget’s parents are delighted to be grandparents, her mum has moved on from shopping channel modelling and is dabbling in local politics. Jim Broadbent is always a joy, happy to support his wife from the wings.
Although Bridget is now successful and thin and has a position of authority, she is still quirky and not the best at public speaking and there are some mishaps in work, some hilarious and some a bit silly and cringeworthy like a powerpoint presentation that reveals a little too much. I enjoyed the nod to the changing fashions and modern trends and laughed out loud at Neil Pearson’s attempts to fit in by waxing his beard like the ‘ironic hipsters’ that have joined the show Sit Up Britain. Bridget Jones’s Baby made me smile, laugh and as the kids would say ‘it got me in the feels’
Much has been discussed about Renee Zellweger’s appearance and that makes me sad. It is 12 years since Edge of Reason was made. I think she is a wonderful Bridget. As a woman who had just turned 40 and still hasn’t found a Mr Darcy or a Jack (but too many Daniel Cleavers) I look up to Bridget and relate to her in so many ways. We all have a touch of the ‘Bridget Jones’ in us. The movie is like a lovely catch up with an old friend. This is why she is so beloved, and we like her, “just the way she is.”
