Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is a heartwarming and surprisingly moving film that explores the themes of grief, love, and growing up. The film follows Bridget as she navigates life as a single parent after the death of her husband, Mark Darcy. While still full of her signature clumsiness and humor, Bridget also faces her emotions head-on, learning to live alongside her loss and find joy in new experiences.
While I'm a mega-fan of the original film, and have been known to dabble in its sequel, 2016's Bridget Jones's Baby is an iteration I'd rather forget. So it's probably an understatement to say I was apprehensive heading into Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, in cinemas now. Having not even seen the trailer, I assumed this revamp would be terrible. But I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong.
The last film felt like a desperate attempt to cling to the over-the-top silliness of the original with a markedly older cast. This new film is still fun and silly — it's the same old klutzy Bridget who's always saying the wrong thing — but it doesn't feel forced. It keeps all that's great about the early days while acknowledging that everyone has grown up. Just like in the original, there's a scene where our hapless heroine chases her love interest through London's snow. Except this time, she's not in her underwear — she's in a sensible silk blouse after her child's concert. Mad About the Boy begins as Bridget (Renée Zellweger) heads once again to a dreaded dinner of 'smug married couples'. Except this time around, the event is a memorial for her late husband, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who died a few years earlier. That doesn't stop the married men at the table grilling her about finding love as a 'single middle-aged woman', of course. Photo shows Bridget Jones with messy hair in a story about what Bridget Jones's Diary still teaches us about not being perfect. From blue soup to fireman pole mishaps, Bridget Jones's Diary portrayed women as flawed, daggy and real. An aging Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) is still trying to shag every 20-something with legs, although he does later refer to this pastime as a 'tad tragic'. He also puts his charm to good use as Bridget's kids' favourite babysitter. Bridget's friends are all back too: Shazzer (Sally Phillips) has a podcast (of course); Jude (Shirley Henderson) is a CEO, but still calls Bridget crying about boy troubles; and Tom (James Callis) is still living off his one-hit wonder, which luckily went viral again after featuring in a video of a dog doing maths. There are plenty of contemporary jokes — some of which are repeated and painfully obvious spon-con for the likes of Netflix and Tinder — while others poke fun at generation gaps or modern celebrities. But, thankfully, the iPad of the last movie is nowhere in sight, and Bridget's trademark red diary is back. In Mad About the Boy, Bridget is coping with the loss of a husband and navigating life as a single parent, which adds another layer to her usual chaos. Of course she wears her pyjamas to school drop-off: she's been through a lot. But rather than just playing her fumbles for laughs, this film is a surprisingly moving exploration of what it's like to manage your own grief while trying to support your children through that same loss. Colin Firth pops up frequently as the husband of Bridget's memory, singing songs from Oliver as part of his children's bedtime routine. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is a reintroduction to the character we've loved for decades — and a fitting goodbye. On her first date since his death, Bridget takes a moment to herself in the bathroom, gasping for air. And try not to cry at her young family's tributes to their father's memory towards the end of the film. Bridget's grief is in many ways the through line of the story, as she learns to 'live at the same time as those you've lost' taking her dad's advice to not just survive, but to live. Among all this grief and growing up there are still, of course, two hot new love interests. Bridget first swoons for Roxster (Leo Woodall), a much younger stud who saves her from an attempt to climb a tree in Hampstead Heath. He has her head over heels, with everyone in the audience kicking their feet too, as Woodall displays the same cheeky, boyish charm and heart-melting smile he put to use in The White Lotus season two. There's even a scene where he dives into a pool to save a small dog, coming out dripping wet in a white shirt and kissing Bridget in front of all her friends. It's all very sexy Pride and Prejudice. Then there's Mr Wallaka (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a science teacher at Bridget's children's school, who's adorably neurotic about enforcing school rules. Sensible and sweet, Bridget's son Billy already sees him as a father figure and a mentor, while Bridget attracts Mr Wallaka's attention by spilling a bagful of her young daughter's syphilis leaflets in front of him (you had to be there). While in many ways there's a similar dynamic to the early films — Roxster is the vivacious young hunk reminiscent of Daniel Cleaver, Mr Wallaka has the awkward seriousness of Mark Darcy — the new leads still feel fresh, and their playful flirting will leave you blushin
BRIDGET JONES MAD ABOUT THE BOY RENEE ZELLWEGER COLIN FIRTH COMEDY ROMANCE GRIEF LOVE FAMILY
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