Renée Zellweger breaks her man drought with Leo Woodall in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Photo / supplied
Renée Zellweger breaks her man drought with Leo Woodall in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Photo / supplied
Twenty-four years after Texan actress Renée Zellweger first hit the big time as a 30-something London singleton obsessed with recording her weight, alcohol consumption and bad romantic entanglements, her plummy-voiced Brit is back again.
Now, Bridget Jones is 51, a mother of two and widowed after Colin Firth’s Mark Darcywas killed fighting for human rights in the Sudan.
We are reunited with everyone’s favourite hapless Sloane four years after Mark’s death, as she struggles to brush her hair or change out of her PJs before walking cute little Billy and Mabel to their private school.
Bridget hasn’t had sex in years, and her friends (their familiar faces matured since the earlier flicks) now insist she gets on dating apps and puts herself out there. “Say widow, not single,” one advises, “it’s romantic and original.”
Soon, Bridget is being rescued from up a tree on Hampstead Heath by the kids’ science teacher Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a 29-year-old Adonis, the improbably-named Roxster (Leo Woodall from One Day).
Which one should Bridget choose to break her man drought?
Because this is based on Helen Fielding’s third bestselling Bridget Jones novel, she will probably be allowed to get her leg over with both of them, and it’s best not to reflect too long on whether this is a realistic dream for the average middle-aged woman.
Zellweger has sported a lanky, Hollywood physique ever since her character’s curvy debut caused uproar. Rather like Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, although her character pretends to lack body confidence in the face of a new, much younger lover, she of course looks fantastic (messy hair aside).
So Mad About the Boy is a fun fantasy and the silly story leans into that. Hugh Grant returns as “Uncle” Daniel Cleaver, issuing double entendres and serving up plenty of laughs, while Bridget’s elderly parents (Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent) deliver moments of tear-jerking pathos.
One minute, Bridget is grinning inanely as she trips over on a school field trip; the next, she’s speaking poignant truths about how you can love and miss someone forever, and also find happiness in new connections. As far as chick flicks go, this one pushes all the emotional buttons.
Narratively, the plot (adapted from her 2013 novel by a now more insightful Fielding, whose own husband died in 2016) hits all the predictable beats, but it’s quite fun seeing the band back together.
We probably don’t need more of Bridget’s exploits after this, but it’s nice to know she’s going to be okay.
Rating out of five: ★★★
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, directed by Michael Morris, is out now.
