Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 5 minutes, Director – Michael Morris
Widowed and spending her days looking after her two children (Casper Knopf, Mila Jankovic), Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) reopens her diary as she re-enters the world of work and love, while one seems direct the other may have unexpected offers.
To take the fourth instalment of a relatively light rom-com franchise and make it a film about grief is a bold move. It’s a move that makes Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy all the more interesting and admirable. While there’s plenty of laugh-out-loud funny moments from scene to scene there’s an emotional core tinged with tragedy. “Do you miss daddy sometimes?” her daughter, Mabel (Mila Jankovic) asks early on. “I miss him all of the times” Bridget (Renée Zellweger, on perhaps her best form as the titular character yet) responds, shortly before reopening her diary.
It’s been four years since Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) passed away, and while her friends encourage her at memorial dinners to get back into the dating world, each in their own different way, she’s uncertain as to if she’s ready. When forced onto Tinder by friend Miranda (Sarah Solemani) she soon forms a relationship with 29-year-old Roxster (Leo Woodall) – kudos to the film for not making any jokes about the name in relation to the character’s age. However, while love and sex begin to reappear in her life the loss of her husband still hangs over her. While bringing moments of humour there’s a tenderness to these depictions. Before many decisions, and indeed during, Bridget’s mind calls back to Mr Darcy, and indeed the grief that her children are going through as well. It leads to some of the film’s most emotional moments, wonderfully in tune and leading to a surprising impact.
As things are going well with Roxster mild flirtations begin to unfold with her son’s (Casper Knopf) teacher Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor – embracing this rom-com role with plenty of charm). There’s no Darcy Vs Cleaver between the two love interests here – Hugh Grant returns as a back-from-the-dead Daniel, stealing his brief scenes with an every-line-a-gem performance – instead they play out as two distinct elements of Bridget’s progression and getting back into life and work. Learning to live with grief at the same time as living her life – we see her also living with the loss of her father (Jim Broadbent), telling her in a flashback that “it’s not enough to survive, you have to live”). These moments are what truly deliver the boldness and unexpectedly touching details of the narrative.
They hang in the background as something the central family hold, not completely acknowledged by all of the supporting cast – who each put in good turns in their encouragement for the lead figure to move on, get out there and live before ‘labial fusion’ sets in. It’s even at the quiet core of some of the humour, of which there is plenty. From start to finish there are plenty of laughs to be found within Mad About The Boy. In many ways it’s the British rom-com at its finest, offering plenty of laugh-out-loud funny lines which involve the whole audience, and indeed this makes for a great audience experience.
One which keeps the familiar elements of Bridget Jones, her clumsiness is still very much present as is her entertainingly flustered nature, but brings in subtle and quietly held complexities which act as key themes. This is in no way a downbeat intensely dramatic film, the closest it comes to trudging is simply by being overlong, yet still entertaining. It’s a fully-rounded comedy as the other three entries try to be. Emotional moments are successfully present and bring in a tender and thoughtful heart to the proceedings, but very much this is still a comedy with plenty of laughs and uplift. It’s just one that has something different to say, and does so boldly and very well indeed. Making for perhaps the best outing for Bridget Jones yet. And if this is her final big screen venture, what a wonderful way to close her diary!
Frequently very funny, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy features a quiet, tender examination of grief at its bold core, bringing in emotion while still allowing the laughs and Renée Zellweger’s wonderful central performance to lead the way, this is Bridget at her entertaining best.
Just A Little Bit Random 