Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Review

Bridget Jones returns for a fourth film with Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. This time the romcom icon deals with motherhood and widowhood after the loss of her beloved Mr. Darcy.

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) has been a widow for four years after her husband (Colin Firth) died on a humanitarian mission in Sudan. She struggles with parenting her two children, Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic), and grief, and her friends give her differing advice. Bridget has a new lease on life when she returns to her old job, and more importantly, a handsome toyboy, Roxster (Leo Woodall).

Bridget Jones has had staying power. There have been three books, three previous films, and an attempt at a stage musical. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy came out nine years after Bridget Jones’s Baby and had an unusual release model compared to the previous films. In America, it was released straight to Peacock, but in cinemas internationally. It has been heavily promoted in the UK, and it has beaten Captain America: Brave New World at the British box office. The success of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy shows there’s a place for female-ordinated films, like Barbie and Wicked, and romcoms could still do good business.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy saw some big changes behind the camera. Marc Morris directed his second feature film and became the first man to direct a Bridget Jones movie. Working on the screenplay with Helen Fielding and Dan Mazer was Abi Morgan (Shame, The Split). This team had to create something that continued Bridget’s story while still being familiar to fans.

The fourth film shared some ingredients with the first film in the series. Bridget’s life in both films was chaotic and she needed to get her act together. The love interests broadly fitted in the roles that Daniel and Mark inhabited. Roxster was the handsome hunk and Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) was a rigid schoolteacher. It’s a typical romcom dynamic. Mad About the Boy aimed to break a cinematic taboo by showing a relationship between an older woman and a younger man instead of it being the other way around. Bridget did get to have some fun.

As a comedy, Mad About the Boy did the job. The audience I was with enjoyed themselves and there were plenty of times I laughed and chuckled. There were plenty of witty lines and situations throughout the film. Some standouts were Mabel reading out aloud from STD leaflets, the Jones family getting stuck up a tree, and Roxster introducing himself at a party. Many of the characters had a chance to shine. Hugh Grant as Daniel was fantastic as the aging playboy and acted as a confidant, although it’s strange Bridget would be friends with Daniel considering what they had been through. Some jokes had more of a sitcom quality, like Bridget having a rivalry with alpha mum, Nicolette (Leila Farzad). There were quite a few references to the previous films, like a cooking disaster and Bridget looking at her iconic underwear.

Mad About the Boy did have a serious undercurrent. Bridget was still grieving over her husband’s death. When Bridget was alone, she had a moment to watch videos of her husband and cry over her loss. Her son acted as Bridget’s household assistant, and he was quieter and more withdrawn than other children because he was grieving for his dad. Mabel pulled on the heartstrings by asking many men if they would be her new daddy. Mabel was so young that she didn’t remember her dad. Fielding is a widow so probably drew on this when working on the screenplay and Morgan has predominately written dramas, so likely helped give Mad About the Boy a dramatic edge.

Mad About the Boy was a film made for the fans of the character and the series. It was a humorous return to the romcom genre, and if it is the final film in the series it would be a fine send-off.