It was back in 2001 that Renée Zellweger first appeared in Bridget Jones’ Diary.  Thankfully, both return in fine form Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth entry in what has become a franchise.  Both Zellweger and her character are still reliable sources of laughs as they ever were.  Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver is still a relentless Lothario, but is slowed by heart issues.  Alas, Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy has passed on prior to this sequel, and appears only as an apparition that Bridget can see.  Although the movie is funny, Mark’s death gives this entry a melancholy tone, where the passage of time and the loss of a loved one grounds things more than a typical romantic comedy.

Every year on the anniversary of Mark’s death, Bridget trudges over to her family’s house for an awkward evening of reminiscing.  Her children, Billy and Mabel, are too young to be left on their own, requiring Daniel to play babysitter for the evening.  Now in his mid-sixties, Daniel is still chasing after younger women like a man half his age.  His latest conquest, Geminita (Elena Rivers), is a model-poet who could easily pass for his daughter.  Daniel still has a soft-spot for Bridget though, and drags himself away from his girlfriend’s poetry recital to help a longtime friend.

Initially, I thought Mark Darcy was still alive, due to how Bridget greets him at his family’s doorstep.  But the film reveals that he’s actually gone–just not forgotten.  Four years after his passing, the Darcy clan are still looking out for Bridget’s best interests.  The men of the family ask her why she hasn’t got on with finding someone else.  After all, she’s still “In pretty good nick”.  The answer, of course, is that it’s hard to move on from the love of your life, which is what this movie is about.

After that horrorshow, Bridget is ready for stiff drinks with her circle of friends Tom (James Callis), Jude (Shirley Henderson) and Shazzer (Sally Phillips).  Tom, still living off of his one hit record, talks about how she needs to complete the fifth and final stage of death and dying, acceptance.  His implication is that Bridget needs to get laid to finally move on.  If she doesn’t, Bridget’s at risk of becoming a “born-again virgin”.  Jude brings up the real possibility of Bridget experiencing “labial adhesion” from prolonged disuse.  They aren’t the only ones telling Bridget to stop wasting away, but they’re the funniest by far.

Up to this point, Bridget has resigned herself to being a stay-at-home mom.  Fortunately, Bridget doesn’t have to worry about her children too much.  When she returns to relieve Daniel, he remarks how much they resemble their parents.  Billy (Casper Knopf) is super-serious like his father, reading books on chess before bedtime.  Mabel (Mila Jankovic) is like her mom, an outspoken dreamer.  Daniel makes a lewd pass at Bridget before he leaves, which is his way of saying that he loves her.

Unfortunately, Bridget can’t remember her Netflix password, to which I wanted to say, “Don’t worry, you’re not missing anything.”  This leads to the first of several insightful moments in the film, where Bridget’s voice-over narration notes the conflicting advice she gets from her friends and family.  Should she continue her life as a frumpy mom, sacrificing herself for the sake of kids?  A picture of her father (Jim Broadbent), now deceased, reminds her of his dying wish, which is for her to not just survive, but live.  And with that, Bridget picks up her diary and begins writing, signaling that she’s ready to engage with the world once more.

The following morning reflects Bridget’s newfound zest for life in a playful montage, where Bridget, Billy and Mabel dance around the house to David Bowie’s “Modern Love” while getting ready for school.  Bridget has to do more than put on a happy face, though.  The house is a colorful mess and she’s slipped into slovenly behavior, wearing her pajamas when she walks her kids to school.  Bridget has always had an inferiority complex, but being around supermoms like Nicolette (Leila Farzad) push it into overdrive.  Then there’s Billy’s new teacher Mr. Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who Bridget describes as a “whistle-obsessed fascist”.

Fortunately, Bridget’s gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Emma Thompson, exceptionally droll) offers her advice: get back to work.  The universe agrees and things decisively turn Bridget’s way.  After a call from former colleague Miranda (Sarah Solemani) she gets her old job back as a television producer.  Nicolette puts Bridget in touch with the impossibly pretty and perfect Chloe (Nico Parker) as a nanny.  Miranda creates a profile of Bridget on Tinder, which after a meet-cute leads to a relationship with the much-younger Roxster (Leo Woodall).  

Initially, Bridget is fine with their relationship consisting solely of texting.  It’s “the perfect relationship.”  They finally agree to meet for dinner.  Roxster says he’s twenty-nine, which makes Bridget gasp.  He guesses that she’s thirty-five, and Bridget happily agrees (she’s actually forty-seven).  They then connect for real afterwards, and the two proceed to spend the rest of the summer together as a couple.  (If you were wondering who the title of the movie is referring to, Roxster is the one.)

Then, just when Bridget was riding high, things turn south.  Her relationship with Roxster ends abruptly and Mr. Walliker tells Bridget that Billy has become withdrawn, which sends her into a panic over not being a good mom.  But this rough patch turns out to be necessary for Bridget to realize what is really important in her life, which are her children, her family and her friends.  After that, it’s a simple matter of being open to love waiting just around the corner.

Recommendation

Watching Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is like attending a high school reunion.  Just like meeting your former classmates, these characters are older but behave exactly as you remember.  Time may have made them grayer, wrinkled and less physically fit, but they’re still the people you spent time with decades ago.  Although I’ve seen them in other films since then, there’s something about seeing this cast reunited for another Bridget Jones film that takes me back.

Renée Zellweger is still Bridget, and hopefully will always be Bridget.  From Bridget Jones’ Diary until now, she’s made this character her own.  With her scrunched up face, rubber ball energy, fondness of cursing and knack for creating awkward moments, Bridget has been comedy gold for Zellweger for four movies.  I hope she gets to continue with this character indefinitely, because Zellweger has earned the right to keep playing Bridget until she’s ready to retire.

After taking the last entry off, Hugh Grant returns as the unrepentant and evergreen skirt-chaser Daniel.  It’s another winning turn for Grant in a remarkable late-career run (see Heretic and Dungeons and Dragons).  Grant has always been an exceptional comedic actor, and very good here.  But he also gives Daniel some much needed self-awareness, resulting in a surprising evolution for a character I’d always taken lightly.

Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor are solid as Bridget’s love interests.  Woodall is undeniably handsome, and the movie repeatedly refers to his character Roxster as a “toy boy”.  However, Woodal portrays him as a mature, sensitive person with complex feelings that even he doesn’t fully understand.  Ejiofor’s performance was a revelation for me, as a straight-man and then potential love interest opposite Zellweger.  He’s also surprisingly good as a romantic lead, where his logical, no-nonsense demeanor makes him a suitable replacement for Colin Firth’s now-departed Mark Darcy.

It does take Mad About the Boy a while to find its footing.  The first half is primarily set up for the second half featuring an unfortunate amount of sitcom-level gags.  The movie takes flight about midway through, when Bridget’s relationship with Roxster begins.  The movie’s last half hour really hits home with a series of emotionally-charged scenes that left me misty-eyed, including a joyful party on New Year’s Eve that doubles as an invitation to the audience to celebrate alongside these characters.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is undeniably sentimental and nostalgic, banking on the feelings the audience has built up for these characters over the years.  That said, the movie is very funny and surprisingly heartfelt.  With this fourth entry, the Bridget Jones comedy franchise has grown beyond its romantic comedy origins into an ongoing story that marks the passage of time.  Like Bridget, this movie occasionally wobbles but it comes out on top in the end, smiling.  Recommended.

Analysis

The appeal of Bridget Jones

As in the previous entries, Bridget’s appeal is based on her being a believable every-woman.  She’s neither outrageously beautiful, but is cute.  Although not particularly graceful, she’s not stereotypically clumsy as women tend to be in romantic comedies.  (She only falls down once in this movie.)  What works in Bridget’s favor is her jolly sense of humor and optimism.  She’s someone people want to be around.  Bridget is the classic good-time girl, a woman who likes to drink, laugh and have fun.  She’s sex-positive, but not a slut.  Bridget likes the company of men but isn’t promiscuous.  She does fool around, but not to a degree that would make her an enemy to her friends.  Finally, Bridget is loyal and sympathetic.  When you become one of her friends, it’s for life.

Cue the laugh track

Mad about the Boy is a movie of two halves.  The first half sets up the second half and is filled with many groan-inducing, sitcom-level jokes that are so bad I was tempted to give the movie a mild recommendation.  However, things improved so much in the second half, including its emotionally-charged ending, that I graded the movie on a curve.

How bad are the jokes in the first half?  Here’s a sampling:

• At the memorial dinner for Mark at the Darcy house, Bridget makes a crack about leaving crystal meth behind for the kids.
• Daniel tells people at Geminita’s performance that he’s talking to his mother, then comments about bringing her to orgasm.
• Bridget’s kids can do the macarena.  Is that dance so old that it’s retro-cool now?
• When dropping Mabel off at school, a bunch of STD pamphlets Mabel took from Dr. Rawlings office fall out of her backpack, where Mr. Walliker sees them.
• Bridget has no awareness of the Tinder app.
• Bridget can’t remember her Netflix password, even though the app remembers it for you.
• Even though she is familiar with text messaging, Bridget gets nervous over how to respond to the latest message from Roxster and sends him a flag of Greece, an abacus and a duck.
• In attempting to help Mabel out of a tree, Bridget gets caught in an unflattering position when Mr. Walliker and Roxster spot her.
• Before her date with Roxster, Bridget purchases too-many boxes of condoms.  The cashier reads each brand name out loud so that Mr. Walliker, who just happens to be at that store at that same moment, can hear every one.

One of a kind

I haven’t done exhaustive research, but I believe the Bridget Jones franchise is the only female-led comedy franchise with at least four entries in the last fifty years, if not longer.  Here’s what I found:

Two entries:

• Legally Blonde (Reese Witherspoon)
• Miss Congeniality (Sandra Bullock)
• Sister Act (Whoopi Goldberg)
• Mamma Mia!  (Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyffred)
• The Princess Diaries (Anne Hathaway)
• Hocus Pocus (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy)
• Charlie’s Angels (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu)
• Enchanted/Disenchanted (Amy Adams)

Three entries:

• Pitch Perfect (Anna Kendrick)
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Nia Vardalos)

Four entries:

• Bridget Jones’ Diary (Renée Zellweger)
• Scary Movie 1 – 4 (Anna Faris, Regina Hall)

I wasn’t sure about including the Scary Movie franchise since it’s really an ensemble, but you get the point.  In headlining four movies as the same character, Zellweger has entered into extremely rare territory.

A continuing saga

One of the most annoying trends in movies today is the reboot-quel (or requel).  This is when a studio reboots a dormant franchise by having the original cast pass the baton to their younger replacements.  Recent entries in this trend include The Exorcist, the last two Ghostbusters movies, the two JJ Abrahams Star Trek movies and the Star Wars sequel trilogy.  

Not all reboot-quels are created equal.  I’ve enjoyed some of those movies more than others.  And some justify the inclusion of original cast members better than others.  But bringing back the original cast members is more about stoking feelings of nostalgia than relying on creativity to tell a compelling story.

What I appreciate about the Bridget Jones franchise is that there is no sign that Zellweger will be replaced by a younger version of herself.  That she’s able to continue playing one of her best-known characters at fifty-five is remarkable.  Hollywood rarely lets a woman age on screen.  Nicole Kidman (57), Kate Winslet (49), Charlize Theron (49) and Cate Blanchett (55) are among a select few who still land choice roles despite being middle-aged.  I sincerely hope that Zellweger can keep playing Bridget well into the future, where we can mark the passage of time with her and laugh as we grow old together.