It’s 3:00pm Pst and I’m calling it: “Bridget Jones” is one of the best movie franchises. It’s not an uninterrupted victory parade of total success, since “The Edge of Reason” was more like a speed bump than a story. But for the last 2.5 decades, these movies have grown out of a pitch perfect romantic comedy classic and into a sweet and enduring saga of life going on, and on, as Bridget Jones — played beautifully by Renée Zellweger — discovers that every ending is another beginning, every tragedy is surmountable, and that life is always worth living when you’re armed with hope and good humor.

That streak continues with “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy,” a movie that finds the title character middle-aged and widowed with two children and no direction. These movies always remind us how easy it is to lose direction, and how important it...