The fourth and final film in the Bridget Jones franchise explores the themes of grief, loss, and rediscovering love and joy after the death of Mark Darcy. Renée Zellweger reprises her iconic role as Bridget, a widowed mother navigating life's challenges with her signature humor and self-deprecating wit. This time, the story delves into the complexities of moving on, the impact of grief on personal relationships, and the search for identity beyond heartbreak.
Bridget Jones (right) has been trying and failing to deal with the loss of Mr Darcy (left) for four years at the beginning of Mad About the Boy. The Bridget Jones we meet in the cult franchise's fourth and final film is the one we fell in love with when Renée Zellweger first brought her to our screens 24 years ago.
How could she be, when Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) was killed in a landmine accident in Sudan four years ago, leaving Bridget a widowed mother-of-two who's still struggling to deal with her loss? (This isn't a spoiler, but the entire premise of the new film, which is based on the 2013 book by Bridget Jones's creator, Helen Fielding.) Zellweger thinks a shift was as necessary to the continuation of Bridget's story as the beloved Mr Darcy's death. 'With each of the films with Bridget, it's a reintroduction, she's at a different stage and she's learning different things,' Zellweger tells The Screen Show. 'She's a mother, and she's grieving, you're never the same person in the different chapters of your life you're never the same on the other side of a loss. It changes who you are, it changes your values, your perspective. And what hangs in the balance of the decisions she's making is so significant now because it's not just about her — it's about these children as well.' While Bridget is still achingly vulnerable, suffers from the same self-deprecating inner dialogue and remains an entirely transparent agent of chaos, she doesn't obsess over things like her weight or drinking in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. She still wonders whether she's good enough and compares herself to the other mothers at school drop-off, but now spends more time exploring 'the challenging pieces of life', as Zellweger puts it, so that she can answer a new set of questions. Namely: how to move on in life and love after losing one's person, while being a good mother and retaining a sense of identity. The camera is alone with her in a way it's never been before. And there's not a love triangle or fight scene to be seen. The result is a film that feels markedly different, both in style and tone, to the sort of Bridget Jones movie we're used to.Mad About the Boy still has plenty of rom-com elements to it: in Bridget's early attempts to re-enter the dating scene, a friend signs her up to Tinder as a 'tragic widow seek sexual reawakening'. She soon matches with a 29-year-old 'tree-rescuing Adonis' inexplicably named Roxster (Leo Woodall), swiftly learns about ghosting first-hand and messes with her lips, inflating them to disastrous levels. Leo Woodall pays homage to Hugh Grant's wet shirt moment in the 2004 Bridget Jones movie, which in turn referenced Colin Firth's infamous lake scene in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice adaptation. She spars endlessly with her primary-school-aged son's new, ridiculously attractive science teacher/Mr Darcy proxy, Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor). And Hugh Grant somehow gives his funniest ever performance as the aging womaniser, Daniel Cleaver, who hasn't let his new-found need to wear compression socks stop him from pursuing 20-something models. But director Michael Morris (the first man to direct a Bridget Jones film) says Mad About the Boy would be more aptly described as a 'comedy of grief' than a rom-com proper., Morris saw Bridget Jones as the perfect vehicle to explore loss through the context of comedy as opposed to drama, which he — and Zellweger — think we need more of. Bridget and Mr Wallaker's relationship is full of friction — at one point the word is emblazoned across the blackboard in his classroom behind them.'Renée has always been the leading voice to say we shouldn't do a Bridget Jones film just because we can, especially if it's the last chapter. You want to do one because there's a really compelling story to tell,' he says. 'Comedy is a way of getting intimate with a character, and Bridget an extra layer of intimacy because we've known her for so long, and I think it's instructive to see how someone so joyful handles something so difficult.' He says there's 'something universal' in the way everyone makes the same mistakes handling their grief. 'We all just do the best we can, and we need the help of our friends and family to give us the strength to finally rediscover joy and life when the time is right, moving away from the we've lost.' Renée Zellweger says the decisions Bridget must make in Mad About the Boy feel more significant 'because it's not just about her, it's about these children as well'.Mr Darcy's death feels like an impossible thing to get over at the outset of Mad About the Boy, for audience members as much as Bridget herself
Bridget Jones Mad About The Boy Renée Zellweger Colin Firth Helen Fielding Comedy Grief Loss Love Romance Motherhood
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