Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy

Keeping Up
With The Joneses

Bridget Jones -
Mad About The Boy
Directed by Michael Morris
UK/France/USA 2025
Universal

Warning: Some character spoilers from the outset.

So once again, after a substantial break in the franchise, Renée Zellweger returns to the role which really put her on the map, at least internationally. Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy is the fourth of the Bridget Jones films and, to be honest, after the last couple I really wasn’t expecting all that much from it. I’m happy to say I was wrong but, more on that later.

It’s interesting in that, while most of the important regular actors from previous installments are back for this fourth time round the merry-go-round that is Bridget Jones’ life… some of the characters are no longer with us at the start of this one. So we get a brief new scene in this featuring Jim Broadbent as her father, in a scene reminding us how important he was to Bridget before it’s revealed that, alas, his character has now passed on between films. Similarly and also very importantly to the title character, Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy character has also been tragically killed between movies, leaving Bridget alone to cope with their young son and daughter on her own. This doesn’t, however, stop Firth from turning up every now and again as a kind of memory ghost when Bridget needs him to.

One important character who is back was absent from the last movie, that of Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver. He’d spent the last go round missing presumed dead until it was revealed at the end that he had been found… he’s here now as a much more mellow, vulnerable and toned down version of the character and, as usual, Grant does it amazingly well, as a true friend and baby sitter to Bridget.

And, as Bridget decides to go back to her old job, she Tinders herself into a tryst with a new toy-boy suitor played by Leo Woodall and also gets interested in her kids new science teacher Mr. Wallaker, played by the always brilliant Chiwetel Ejiofor (who I shall eventually forgive for trying to kill Captain Mal in the Firefly movie Serenity). So it’s business as usual for Miss Jones (aka Mrs. Darcy) and all the usual shenanigans apply as she tries to engage with various different, sometimes overwhelming jigsaw puzzle pieces of her life at once… taking on Brazilian lip serum and negotiating the prospect of labial adhesion midst the minefield of problems life throws in her way.

Now I loved the original Bridget Jones’ Diary (don’t worry, I’m not going to make the same grammatical mistake as the people who marketed the first movie) but found the two sequels - Bridget Jones - The Edge Of Reason and Bridget Jones’ Baby to be much less interesting or even entertaining movies. So I’m very pleased to say that this last entry in the series is a much more satisfying film (despite a more linear structure than I was expecting in terms of the new relationships she has to juggle) and easily the best of the sequels, for my money. Not only that but, it also gets very emotional and, all I’m saying is there may have been tears for this audience member. Most of the jokes don’t fall flat and the actors are all absolutely great… it’s also nice to see James Callis back as the ‘one hit wonder’ millionaire who is still very much ‘in the money’ after his song is used in a viral video of a dog doing mathematics.

It was also great seeing actress Josette Simon, who I remember playing Dayna in Blake’s Seven when I was a teenager, added to the cast of characters. Glad these people are still working.

Another thing is, the film is true to the original characters quite a bit, with Zellwegger perhaps looking slightly more streamlined in the face but absolutely on point playing Bridget once more. This whole film seems like a non-starter after all this time but it’s actually a lovely way to conclude the series (although, I do see how they could maybe do one more if they wait another ten or so years, I think). So as far as I’m concerned, Bridget Jones - Mad About The Boy is an absolutely lovely film and a big recommendation from me. As I said earlier, easily the best of the sequels.