Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy – Film Review
by Brian Merriman

Director: Michael Morris
Cast:  Renée Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Isla Fisher, with Colin Firth and Hugh Grant
Screenplay by: Helen Fielding, Abi Morgan and Dan Mazer

Almost a quarter of a century after she first stumbled onto our screens, Bridget Jones returns in her fourth iteration and this time she is ‘mad about the boy’. Who could blame her? In Leo Woodall’s 29-year-old Roxter Mc Duff, they have certainly cast an actor who teases and beguiles the camera as well as the entire cast of women and some of the men, who populate the recently widowed Bridget’s life. Though younger than Bridget, will the very fit Roxter be the one to put the grieving widow back into ‘the game’?

Co-executive producer Renée Zellweger returns for the fourth time to reveal her age-defying public smile and optimism as she copes with raising two children, Billy and Mabel, joyously played by Casper Knopf and Mila Jankovic.

She is a great Mother, and her house is in loving chaos as she maintains contact with the social circle we met in the previous three movies, featuring an enviable cast of the best of British actors. There is no doubt that this sequel will add richly to the dominance of romantic comedy films, that the UK industry excels in. Helen Fielding’s ingenious Jones stories have grossed $800 million to date. This latest offering will cruise the franchise through the $1 billion barrier, as hungry fans are richly rewarded for their long wait for Bridget to re-emerge.

There is no doubting the time Bridget has to reflect on her lot, in the absence of any financial pressures, supported by a huge social and family circle. Add to this a wonderful support system through Chloe the Nanny (Niko Parker) and an enlightened school, including a gifted teacher Mr Wallaker, well played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose own back story is another enriching sub-plot of family, grief, missed opportunity and kindness.

Bridget is not stuck for handsome suitors or encouragement. With incredible ease and generosity, she is welcomed back into her media career and is never without social invitations. She has even ventured onto social media dating sites but as always in any good rom-com, it is a chance meeting that changes her life and alters her future path. Director Michael Morris milks the romantic opportunities through his use of locations, visual richness and giving free rein to the unsaid, skilfully captured by the cinematography and the ever-expression-filled Zellweger’s face.

As expected, there are many laugh-out-loud one-liners in Fielding’s light-filled screenplay, but there is also a tenderness in the playing and presenting of the central character and her life options as a middle-aged widow. Colin Firth makes a brief appearance as her late husband Mark Darcy and Hugh Grant is in top form as Uncle Daniel Cleaver. His subplot of kinship is a nice addition to the empathetic tale.

Clearly, this iconic creative team waited until they had the right story and themes to bring Bridget back. It is a lovely movie, easily matching the achievements of its predecessors but happily adding to the quality of the characters that can only make us long for yet another chapter of this woman who we all feel we know so well. You too will be mad about Bridget, and happy she returns in such good stead in such a lovely story.