Despite evidence to the contrary the Editor is convinced that in his younger days he was always being mistaken for George Clooney and in fairness he’s probably right if George Clooney was ever a pot bellied, balding drunk wearing a bag on his head then yes the Editor was his double. We’d agree that, yes, the Editor does indeed look like a Hollywood star unfortunately it’s Predator (‘You’re Fired!’ – Ed) Truth is that everyone looks change over the years and Renee Zellweger is no different on that front as the recent photos show and clearly she has had no surgery whatsoever. Definitely not. However despite somehow looking younger she is back to play the dippy journalist Bridget Jones and celebrating her 43rd birthday on her own with a cup cake remonstrating with herself on losing the two big loves of her life. It’s whilst at a brilliantly funny funeral that she bumps into a former flame the strait laced human rights barrister played by Colin Firth except any chance to reignite a flame is extinguished as she find him now married.
With the accident prone gaffe-meister now in the unlikely position of a senior TV news producer she draws comfort from her surrogate family especially a feisty female newscaster with a sparky performance by Sarah Solemani and the pair up sticks and go to a music festival in a muddy field with Jones as ever inappropriately dressed in all white trousers, top and shoes – what could possibly happen next? In fairness there are some brilliant one liner jokes here only occasionally let down by some obvious pratfalls but it’s at the festivals with a self deprecating cameo from Ed Sheeran that she bumps into American millionaire internet love guru Patrick Dempsey where they get it on. It’s not long after this that at a children’s party which features a criminally wasted Jessica Hynes, who is little more than a background extra and presumably must have had her scene chopped or just turned up to visit friends on the set, that Bridget bumps into Firth again discovering that he’s now divorced and admitting that he always loved her and, whoops! there she goes again she ‘falls’ into bed with him again. Finding herself pregnant , again it’s a cliché in the script that this has all cum..um…come about due to out of date vegan condoms that this has occurred and she has the quandary of not only finding out who the father is but also trying to keep them apart. Inevitably both Firth and Dempsey find out about each other and begin a competitive prospective dad bout.
It’s been 12 years since the last Bridget Jones film, The Edge of Reason which was definitely the weakest of the three films and this latest film does suffer from the loss of High Grant who, despite his doubts about his ability, is a brilliant light comedian as seen in the recent Meryl Streep starrer ‘Florence Jenkins’ and Dempsey, though decent enough in the role, pales in comparison. Firth is as good as ever and at times is immensely sympathetic in the less obvious role. It’s an almost universally great cast with everyone good in their roles though to would have been good to see more of the always good Sally Phillips as Shazzer but stand out support is undoubtedly Emma Thompson as the splendidly waspish obstetrician although this may well owe much to her being one of the film’s three writers along with Helen Fielding and Dan Mazar, whose own comic highlights include Borat & Bruno and makes amends with this after the truly awful career low ‘Dirty Grandpa’. The script does suffer at times from what are rapidly becoming comedy tropes, the pratfalls, the swearing child and even uses a well publicised real life TV news cock up as its own and the plot is formulaic and obvious in its outcome but there are enough laugh out loud lines and endearing performances to make this a highly enjoyable experience even for the boyfriends who may be reluctantly dragged along to this.
Those expecting a film of the novel will be disappointed as this is a different story and a much lighter affair altogether although some may object to the Bridget Jones character is inability to find completeness without a man and that the hard nosed hatchet man at the news channel is a stereotyped plain speaking Northern woman assisted by 2 moustachioed, top knot wearing, hipster tosspots. Add into the mix that both Bridget’s suitors are both very wealthy males in high paying jobs it’s a removal from reality when there s a wonder if it would be quite so compelling if both men were low paid with run of the mill jobs struggling to pay the mortgage or rent like anyone else. But perhaps that’s taking it too seriously as this is a light fluffy comedy which is as good as the original film with some very, very funny scenes.
Here’s the trailer:
