The Bridget Jones’ Diary phenomenon, based on the work of Helen Fielding, always struck me as a British version of Sex and the City. Both got their start in the 1990s as newspaper columns and later books about the sexual adventures of a woman in the big city.
The first movie, Bridget Jones’ Diary, arrived in 2001, which was at the zenith of Sex in the City-mania. Like SATC, the franchise has continued into its third decade, first with the heroine settling down with one of her long-term male suitors. And now, also like Sex and the City’s sequel series And Just Like That, the Jones film series has the protagonist (Renee Zellweger) in her early-50s, and single again after the death of her husband.
The new movie, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, debuted last week on Peacock, and it’s decent—enough that it probably deserved at least a perfunctory theatrical release, like it got in the U.K. The previous movies were all box office triumphs. The film ably toggles among laughs that are faithful to the series, callback and fan service, and tugging at the heartstrings. Most of the fan-favorite side characters in the previous movies, from Emma Thompson’s gynecologist to Sarah Solemani’s news anchor, also return.
Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy was always depicted as a prince of a guy, much more so than his fellow dead husband, Mr. Big. But as the new movie begins, we learn that Darcy passed away four years earlier while doing humanitarian work in Darfur, leaving Bridget with two young children, although Firth pops up in a couple of flashbacks.
As the movie begins, Bridget is mourning not only her husband but also her father (Jim Broadbent), who passed away more recently but encouraged her to start living life again, both by going back to work and getting back into the dating pool. But while the previous movie, 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby, established that Hugh Grant’s caddish old flame, Daniel Cleaver, was himself dead, the resurgent Grant is back in the fold, having faked his death.
The two don’t get back together, but she’s there to help him atone for his lifetime of dickishness, and take a shot at reconnecting with his estranged son. Grant’s handful of scenes, in particular, are highlights of the film.
Instead, we’re back to the original film’s formula of Bridget, caught between two suitors while occasionally suffering humorous public humiliations. This time, her prospective bachelors are a much younger, frequently shirtless park ranger (White Lotus alum Leo Woodall) and her child’s teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Nothing surprising takes place, and some callbacks are legitimately moving. The new movie’s dropping of its heroine into early-50s singledom is done much more smoothly, and less awkwardly, than the And Just Like That version.
A whole book—and possibly a You Must Remember This season—could probably be produced about the career travails of Renee Zellweger and what they say about the treatment of actresses of a certain age. She was cast as Bridget Jones a quarter century ago, at a time when both her weight gain for the part and her non-Britishness were treated as major controversies, as was the time in 2014 when she showed up on a red carpet looking unlike herself.
Her big comeback role came in 2019’s Judy, where she won an Oscar for playing Judy Garland in a performance much better than the movie that contained it. Yet, for some reason, six years later, the new Bridget Jones is her first movie role of any kind since. As always, she’s a welcome on-screen performer and was the right choice to play Bridget all those years ago.