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Nearly a decade ago, Britain’s perennially hapless rom-com heroine Bridget Jones actually did make it to marriage and motherhood after three movies and countless comical indignities. But in the tender, sexy coda “Mad About the Boy,” the fourth film adapted from Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary” novel series, she discovers there’s more life to live after the happily-ever-after. It’s the best of the sequels yet.
The reason Bridget (Renée Zellweger, buoyant and luminous) has a new adventure at all, however, may be sobering for fans of the bubbly erstwhile singleton, last seen in 2016’s “Bridget Jones’s Baby” newly wedded and romping into the sunset with her stoic barrister beau, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). So let’s just rip off the bandage, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s read the book or seen the trailers: Mark, I regretfully report, has died. Four years after losing the love of her life to a land mine in Sudan, Bridget is a 50-something widow raising their two adorable spawn in the cozy chaos of their Hampstead home. Ten-year-old Billy (Casper Knopf), serious like his father, quietly struggles to make sense of Mark’s death. Precocious 6-year-old Mabel (Mila Jankovic) is too young to remember much of her dad. And Bridget, stuck in emotional limbo, is doing her best but not really living at all. Everyone tells her to get laid, get a makeover or get back to work. One day, she cracks open a fresh page in her diary and gives it a go.
Bridget is – comfortingly, maddeningly, hilariously – as endearing and eccentric as ever. Director Michael Morris (“To Leslie”), creating lived-in textures with cinematographer Suzie Lavelle, introduces new poignancy into her latest chapter, finding heartstring-tugging ways to depict how vividly Mark’s memory remains present in his family’s lives. (Pro tip: Bring tissues.)
The script by Fielding, Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan fondly reunites Bridget with familiar faces, including best pals Shazzer (Sally Phillips), Tom (James Callis) and Jude (Shirley Henderson), ready with crisis cocktails and pep talks; encouraging ex-co-workers Miranda (Sarah Solemani) and Richard (Neil Pearson); parents Colin and Pamela (Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones); and saucy gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Emma Thompson). Even former boss-slash-paramour Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), still a flirty cad fixated on Bridget’s giant panties, is now a dear confidant and the unlikeliest of babysitters.
When an arboreal meet-cute leads to a steamy fling with much younger park ranger Roxster (Leo Woodall of “The White Lotus”), she indeed gets back on the horse – in more ways than one. Her hairdos become less frazzled, her outfits less sad-sack. While our neurotic everywoman must now learn to thrive in the time of Netflix, Tinder and beauty fads gone wrong, it’s refreshing that one area in which she doesn’t lack confidence is her career.
Groundedness suits the heroine, who’s been a skydiving TV anchor, done time in a Thai prison and endured a rather silly baby daddy mystery over the course of these films. An age-gap romance is the least ridiculous situation she’s found herself in, and Zellweger and Woodall create natural, sweet sparks. Yet the actress, who’s played Bridget for 25 years with a keen handle on what makes her so accessible, also keeps her hard-won wisdom and life experience close at hand.
With more to fret over than which love interest she should end up with – though there is that, too – her insecurities revolve around judgy fellow mom Nicolette (Leila Farzad); Chloe (Nico Parker), the nanny she’s hired to care for her kids; and how Billy and Mabel are navigating their own grief. And there is the matter of Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the no-nonsense science teacher who always seems to catch Bridget on the wrong foot (and whom the film takes a few contrived shortcuts to bring around.)
It’s an affectionate finale for the character, crafted with such care – from Molly Emma Rowe’s costumes to Kave Quinn’s thoughtful production design to those signature needle drops, monologues and Bridget-isms – it’s a shame “Mad About the Boy” isn’t opening in U.S. theatres. We’ve spent a quarter century watching Fielding’s irrepressible heroine flail her way through life and love. Capping off her best era yet, she deserves the big screen.
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Three and one-half stars. Rated R. Available on Amazon Prime. Contains sex, language, grief and the female gaze. 124 minutes.
Rating guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.