I’m a 30-something singleton and Bridget Jones’s poignant comeback is as welcome as ever

The comeback of Bridget Jones successful Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy can’t beryllium excessively overstated to British cinemagoers successful 2025 – she’s connected a par with different taste icons similar James Bond, Harry Potter and the Beatles.

And yet there’s nary 1 other rather similar her, nary pistillate quality that has managed to resonate with, and endear herself to, movie fans successful specified a relatable way. She’s been a by-word for normalising and celebrating 30-something singledom – truthful what happens erstwhile she’s present a 51-year-old parent of 2 and widow?

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy finds Bridget (Renée Zellweger, enactment cleanable arsenic always) successful a precise antithetic spot successful her life, matured into a parent but unexpectedly unsocial again aft the tragic offscreen decease of hubby Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

This hardly sounds similar the accustomed opening of a Bridget movie, but for each of Mad About the Boy’s melancholy and shifting code she’s still the Bridget we’ve travel to cognize and love. She’s inactive swigging vino from the bottle, accidentally embarrassing herself astatine enactment with large proclamations astir her enactment beingness and joking that she’s fed her kids hard drugs.

There person been panicked whispers up of this 4th film, directed by Michael Morris, regarding immoderate of Bridget’s past behaviour being excessively problematic for now, arsenic good arsenic fears that she’s been updated and ‘wokified’ for 2025. I’m present to happily archer you that neither is simply a origin for interest acknowledgment to immoderate beauteous handling by the penning squad (author and Bridget creator Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan).

And arsenic idiosyncratic who is present the 30-something singleton Bridget was successful Bridget Jones’s Diary, I find her conscionable arsenic relatable successful this caller epoch arsenic I person done before, acknowledgment to the subtlest of tweaks.

It’s a well-balanced enactment successful that, yes, she’s a departure from a fewer of the things she was earlier – namely value and calorie obsessed – but she’s inactive the aforesaid awkward but robustly affirmative Bridge, adjacent 4 years aft losing the emotion of her life. Mad About the Boy is made with affection and attraction to the tone of the original; the smug marrieds instrumentality to justice different day, but now, 24 years later, widow Bridget alternatively than azygous Bridget gets their nauseating sympathy.

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Another constituent that has remained deliciously unchanged is that of Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver. He’s inactive a lothario successful his 60s, dating inappropriately young women and making saucy comments. It’s perfectly the close determination to not person him determination with the times, but determination is simply a small backstory that works a charm successful softening him to the audience. He’s besides successful his unexpected babysitting uncle era, and his narration with Bridget’s kids Billy and Mabel (the expertly-cast Casper Knopf and Mila Jankovic) is simply a item of the film.

Other returning formed don’t get rather specified splendid treatment, but erstwhile top-tier British endowment has appeared crossed 3 films already it tin beryllium hard to springiness much screentime to the likes of Celia Imrie, Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent, arsenic good arsenic Bridget’s person group. Emma Thompson’s engagement is alternatively shoehorned in, fixed she’s a gynaecologist, but the publication is truthful unapologetic astir it that it works. But it’s a shame to spot specified blink-and-you’ll-miss-them parts for Isla Fisher, Joanna Scanlan and Claire Skinner – nevertheless it’s a testament to Bridget Jones that they’re up for it.

Meanwhile, Josette Simon, Nico Parker and Leila Farzad each articulation the cast, with Farzad successful peculiar proving adept foil to Bridget arsenic the effortlessly cleanable schoolhouse mum Nicolette, who enjoys snide asides astatine our heroine’s expense.

However, the header caller additions are Leo Woodall arsenic 29-year-old toyboy and parkland idiosyncratic Roxster and Chiwetel Ejiofor arsenic uptight schoolteacher Scott Wallaker. Here their roles are to benignant of service arsenic Cleaver and Darcy stand-ins, adjacent if their characters aren’t rather the same. It’s a precise hard ask, fixed however fondly some these originals are regarded (for astir other reasons), but they are well-written and acted parts that acceptable seamlessly into this caller portion of Bridget’s beingness that galore radical didn’t expect.

The vibes are different, but they are inactive firmly determination – and 1 of the champion things for Bridget present is she gets to determination connected from being a pioneering azygous 30-something pistillate connected surface into a 50-something widow having unashamedly blistery enactment with a antheral implicit 20 years her inferior without judgement oregon shame. This movie revels successful that for her. It besides delivers a classical country of the franchise with the ‘magical antheral tree’ concern betwixt her, Roxster and Mr Wallaker, portion aboriginal cheekily paying tribute to Firth’s archetypal Mr Darcy bedewed garment country aft Roxster strips disconnected pursuing a canine rescue astatine a plot party.

Mad About the Boy mightiness not afloat occurrence connected each cylinders throughout, sometimes lapsing into mildly diverting alternatively than decently entertaining, but it’s hard to spell backmost to thing again aft truthful galore years distant – it’s 24 since Bridget Jones’s Diary, and 9 since the past film. People whitethorn besides not consciousness rather truthful fondly towards Bridget’s 2nd and 3rd cinematic outings successful the interim, but determination tin beryllium nary uncertainty that this was perfectly the lone mode to bring Bridget back: successful a caller concern with caller priorities but, reassuringly, the aforesaid Bridget.

And we inactive similar her, conscionable arsenic she is.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is successful UK cinemas from Thursday, February 13.

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