Not all romantic comedies have stood the test of time quite as well as 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Director Sharon Maguire and her close friend Helen Fielding, who wrote the 1996 romance novel it was based on, crafted one of the true greats of its genre: witty, charming, and, in many ways, before its time. Bridget Jones’s Diary is so specific and tuned into British culture, and yet has simultaneously proved to be a universal story that continues to transcend generations. Most young women can relate to the film in one way or another, a strong trait carried throughout the best rom-coms.
Watching the original film for the first time felt like a real rite of passage. A core memory from my teenage years is how excited my own mother was that I was finally old enough to watch Bridget Jones with her. Another was finding out that main star Renée Zellweger (Judy, Chicago) isn’t British at all, and feeling equal parts betrayed and impressed. Alas, not all of these pieces of praise apply to the franchise’s latest and final installment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which struggles to capture the untamed spirit that has come to be expected from its titular character and her narrative.
The better part of a decade has passed, both in reality and in the plot, when we catch up with Bridget for one last time. Her solitary apartment has been traded in for a terraced house, one that is embellished with crookedly hung fingerpaints and scattered toys that stretch as far as the eye can see. Bridget’s youngest child, Mabel (Mila Janković), embodies all of her mother’s cheekiness. Meanwhile, her young son, Billy (Casper Knopf), carries himself much like his father, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who Bridget wed in the final scene of the previous movie, 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby.
Everything Bridget had wished for over the years has finally come to fruition. However, as it can often be, life is unfair and unforgiving. It is revealed early on that her beloved husband Mark passed away, leaving her to come to terms with not only suddenly becoming a widow but also a single mother. Nearly certain that her dating days were over, Bridget, once again, finds herself at obscenely crowded dinner tables, receiving unsolicited advice from her friends on how to move forward with her life.
Endearingly, it is Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), perhaps Bridget’s most infamous ex, that she can lean on for support, to the extent of being known to her kids as Uncle Daniel. After failing to appear in the franchise’s third installment, it’s wonderful to see Grant reprise one of his many iconic roles. The unlikely friendship shared between the pair is one of the few aspects of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy that feels most authentic to the tone of the previous films. However, this nourishing dynamic is frustratingly absent for most of the runtime, which contributes to the movie’s biggest downfall: it rarely feels like you’re watching a Bridget Jones film.
Though life can seem drab at times throughout the previous Bridget Jones movies, those emotions were consistently offset by a certain level of entertaining absurdity. But in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the franchise’s signature humor often seems downright rejected and has little other than recycled jokes and callbacks to offer in exchange. As the Bridget Jones character is synonymous with the early 2000s, it has become more obvious that it is the influence of previous co-writer Richard Curtis, who is known for scripting and directing some of the best romantic comedies of that time period, including Notting Hill and Love Actually, that is sorely missed.
It’s no secret that Renée Zellweger is a gifted comedic performer, but the script at hand gives the Oscar-winner barely anything new to try out or a chance to revive the more brazen side of Bridget. Though her life persists, you get the sense that Bridget is consistently flatter than ever and lacks growth throughout the narrative. On the other hand, Hugh Grant (Heretic, Four Weddings and a Funeral) is unsurprisingly still a real crowd-pleaser and seamlessly slips back into his hilarious performance as Daniel.
Out of Bridget’s two new romantic interests, it is Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind) as Mr. Wallacker, a science teacher at Billy and Mablel’s school, who reigns supreme as a result of his natural and effortlessly charming performance. There is nothing wrong, per se, about Mr. Wallacker’s competition, Roxster, played by Leo Woodall (The White Lotus, One Day). Woodall is admirable in the role, but the romance between Roxster and Bridget, who is 26 years his senior, lacks that integral persuasive chemistry, especially in comparison to other recent films that explore age-gap dynamics, like Halina Reijn’s Babygirl.
While Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is being called the last movie in the franchise, it is the first to be directed by a man, Michael Morris (To Leslie, Better Call Saul). As such, the absence of a feminine touch is tangible. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy attempts to explore the notion of learning self-love as a middle-aged woman but lacks genuineness due to its surface-level endeavors.
All of this isn’t to say the final Bridget Jones film lacks emotionally provoking moments in all respects, as it does manage to portray just how unpredictable life can be in an earnest way. Yet, those tear-inducing moments are few and far between and, at times, even liché. As a result, we’re left with a story that lacks what made the other Bridget Jones sequels so engaging and feels like a stumble at the finish line.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy hits Peacock on February 13!
Release Date: February 13, 2025.
Directed by Michael Morris.
Screenplay by Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, & Abi Morgan.
Based on the Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy novel by Helen Fielding.
Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, & Jo Wallett.
Executive Producers: Helen Fielding, Amelia Granger, & Sarah Jane Wright.
Main Cast: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Isla Fisher, Josette Simon, Nico Parker, Leila Farzad, Sarah Solemani, Sally Phillips, Shirley Henderson, James Callis, Celia Imrie, & Ian Midlane.
Cinematographer: Suzie Lavelle.
Composer: Dustin O’Halloran.
Production Companies: StudioCanal, Miramax, & Working Title Films.
Distributors: Universal Pictures (U.S. and UK)
Runtime: 125 minutes.
Rated R.
