Bridget Jones's Baby

Renee Zwelleger is back with Colin Firth in "Bridget Jones' Baby" from 2016, also starring Patrick Dempsey.

Bridget goes the "Mamma Mia" route - she's 43 in this film and learns she's pregnant after her old love, Mark (Firth) declares himself again, and she goes out with a friend and enjoys a spontaneous evening with a guy famous in the tech field, Jack (Dempsey). Bridget, of course, isn't sure who the father is, and when the GYN/OB (Emma Thompson) comes at her with a huge needle in order to get some DNA, Bridget can't go through with it.

The two men vie for the Expectant Father of the Year Award, leading to some funny situations.

I loved the fact that this film wasn't about twenty-somethings. It's cute. Nothing earth-shattering but with a good cast, certainly good.

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) comes to terms with her 43rd birthday and her permanent childless single status. Bridget attends Daniel Cleaver's funeral after his disappearance. Surprisingly, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) shows up with his wife. Everybody is married with children, even the gays. Bridget is dragged to a music festival by best friend Miranda (Sarah Solemani). She sleeps with Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey), the first guy she meets, who turns out to be an internet dating billionaire. Later at a christening, she hooks up with fellow godparent Mark Darcy who claims to be getting a divorce. She has a surprise pregnancy and the father could be either man.

This has plenty of single Bridget Jones fun. I'm glad that Zellweger gave up getting bigger to do a bunch of fat jokes. It's not breaking any new grounds but it is fun for fans. Emma Thompson has fun being the doctor. It's a comedy and I laughed a couple of times.

Renée Zellweger and a delightful cast, especially Emma Thompson, add some weight to the light simplistic plot of this movie. Dempsey and Firth contrast beautifully, and each has a different kind of chemistry with Zellweger. It's funny and engaging and the lead character, it feels current because they've allowed it to grow. But there isn't much that feels fresh in movie. The one exception is Emma Thompson. In spite of the mess, Zellweger remains winsome and charming as Bridget, enough so that one wishes the movie had done better by her. In short, Bridget Jones's Baby is not a great Bridget Jones movie, but it is a Bridget Jones movie, and maybe that's all people need.

Like many I was very happy but skeptical when I heard the news of a third entry in the Bridget Jones series. It had been 12 years since the last film, The Edge of Reason, which deviated severely from its source material in the worst way possible and Helen Fielding had put out an awful third book Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which seemed to destroy everything I loved about the series.

First off: Bridget Jones's Baby is NOT an adaptation of Mad About the Boy, but its own zany creation. Second of all it's actually surprisingly good. Despite a 12 year gap Renee Zellweger slips into her Bridget persona flawlessly. She's able to anchor the film so that it still feels like a Bridget Jones film while introducing new characters like Jack Quant, a man Bridget instantly has a spark with at a music festival, and Sarah Solemani as Bridget's colleague and single friend, Miranda. Sharon Maguire (who directed the first Bridget film and was the inspiration for Shazzer), returns and seems able to get the best out of her cast.

The film sees Bridget, now turning 43, as a successful news producer who is still single and childless. Deciding to embrace her state as a single spinster she goes to a music festival where she meets a handsome man about her age, and sleeps with him. A little while later, when at her godchild's christening, she runs into Mark Darcy, new divorced from the wife he married after they split up, and as sparks fly, she sleeps with him too, only to remember in the morning all the reasons they split up as he never had time with her and was always focused on work. Soon after she discovers she's pregnant with the titular baby.

A huge part of the success of the film is down to the script which holds contributions from notorious wit Emma Thompson. It's really quite funny, but also has a lot of character bits so we believe in these characters and their decisions. The explanation for why Bridget and Darcy aren't together feels organic and real. Similarly the movie does a great job of showing who these characters would be 12 years on. Bridget has grown and figures out things in life while still keeping sense of humour and being a clumsy mess in certain situations. Rather than appearing haughty, Mark comes across as painfully shy, a careful man who now has many regrets from all the chances he didn't take.

It's a wonderful, sweet movie, and a wonderful end to the Bridget Jones series.

Why did I watch this? I can't say I was ever a fan, I never read the books, but I have seen the original film many times. I re-watched it not long ago, and had to admit it had worn out for me, but that's probably my own fault. It's not meant to be seen every holiday season. Still, it has very good timing and it's bittersweet. Bridget Jones' Baby doesn't and isn't. It's dragging and it would make absolutely no sense to anyone not familiar with the first ones. The millennial characters are unfunny and implausible, the writing there is both patronizing and eager to please, like me following my friend's teenage son on Instagram and commenting YOLO. Pussy Riot and cats that look like Hitler... and the next minute jokes about human rights violations... So, I actually watched for the experience of a 40+ pregnant woman, of any glimpses of successfully acted emotions. And for Colin Firth, and possibly Emma Thompson, although I think I'd now like to forget she has screenplay credit in this. But still, what happened? Was everyone an amateur? It was like the characters from earlier films were all doing cameos. Renee Zellweger was playing herself playing her character 12 years later. No, she was standing in for herself in that role. Her voice was often barely audible, like she was really, really tired.