Author Helen Fielding herself must be surprised that her initial comic newspaper column about a ditzy London woman traversing the 1990’s dating scene has now spawned a fourth film since 2001 but here we are with ‘Bridget Jones Mad about the boy’. Renee Zellweger returns in the title role now a single mum with two young children. She’s single because she is widowed and has been for four years since the death of her husband Mr Darcy from a bomb explosion whilst working in Sudan. It’s a melancholy extended pre title scenes that sets up her current existence. Struggling with her two albeit obligatory adorable children Billy ( Casper Knopf) still missing his father and Mabel (Mila Jankovic) impossibly cute and carrying on perhaps not quite understanding the circumstances of her father’s absence. ‘Are you going to be my new daddy?’ is a constant question to any man in her mother’s life. Popping in and out of their lives is the occasional babysitter and full time rogue-ish lothario Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant on usual top form). And Bridget still has her gaggle of chardonnay quaffing friends Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Jude (Shirley Henderson), Tom (James Callis), Miranda (Sarah Solemani) and Talitha (Josette Simon) all on the periphery in bizarrely mirthless scenes.
It is those friends that persuade her back into the saddle when it comes to dating using Tindr – does anyone still use that now – even our Editor stopped using it mainly because he’d been left swiped so many times that he’d got whiplash via voodoo (‘You’re fired!’ – Ed). But it’s an incident with her kids in a park that sees her hook up with a park keeper half her age in the form of unlikely named Roxster (Leo Woodall) with a six pack that could grate cheese. And with Bridget having been hired as producer on a daytime magazine show her life would seem to be back on track. But of course an age imbalanced romance is heading to its inevitable conclusion but brewing away in the background is the presence of her kids new private school teacher Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejofer).
Scripted by Fielding, Abi Morgan and the great Dan Mazer ( who has worked extensively with Sacha Baron Cohen on his Ali G, Borat and Bruno films) there are many laugh out loud moments which balance the occasional moments of melancholy. The three writers juggle the theme of just how do you deal with grief and there are several spot on turns of phrase from ‘ the casual cruelty’ of unsuitable dating to ‘the glory of what have been’ when dates go awry. The script brings back Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent in a brief but moving scene of which the film has many that alternates with the broader comedy. Bridget Jones Mad about the Boy at times is tender and moving and yet ultimately joyous and life affirming and is arguably the best film in the franchise since the original.
related feature : Charlotte Kirk talks fighting, swearing and a red hot iron in her new film, ‘Duchess’ !
related feature : Bridget Jones’s baby – REVIEW
Here’s the Bridget Jones – Mad about the Boy trailer…..
