Film Review – Bridget Jones’s Baby

Bridget Jones's Baby

Bridget Jones's Baby

Is it possible to have your cake and eat it too?!

Well, here we go again! Bridget Jones is back to steal our hearts in Bridget Jones’s Baby. How the hell does she do that?! With Renée Zellweger’s semi-believable English accent and the quirky way she twists her face, it’s easy to feel empowered by Jones’s refusal to let heartbreak steer her down an ice-cream infused, self-pitying coma. It sure does help when you have the support of three of the most amazing best friends (Sally Phillips, Shirley Henderson, James Callis) and a loving father (Jim Broadbent). She stands up for what she believes in. This is why I love Bridget Jones. Helen Fielding has created a character to whom many women such as myself can relate to.

Jones has really come a long way from wearing those granny panties discovered by the saucy womanizer, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). Grant’s appearance in this film is pretty much non-existent. His character was supposedly killed in an airplane crash “landing in a bush”. (LOL) More on that scene later.

As the opening credits rolled, I expected the usual “woe is me” opener as Bridget slums around in her fuzzy bedroom slippers and slouchy jammies. But, after a miserable “happy birthday to me” cupcake with a crooked candle, I was pleasantly surprised when Bridget started going off with a fun, full-on lip sync of “Jump Around” by House of Pain. I was quite impressed with Zellweger’s ability to nail it.

Bridget Jones's Baby Movie Still 1

The next sequence set the tone for the rest of the movie. I love when they do flashback scenes in films. My favorite of those being Memento, but that’s neither here nor there. Back to Bridget….”12 hours earlier….” We get a look at what Jones’s life looks like 10 years after Daniel walked into her life and ripped those granny panties off…I digress. It’s Bridget’s 43rd birthday and she’s the best television producer west of Westminster Abbey. Single yet again but looking and feeling the best she’s ever been. You see her triumphs in the way she walks and the way she delegates. She puts on a smiling face, even though you can see in her eyes that her heart still longs for her darling Mr. Darcy, who brought his wife to Daniel Cleaver’s memorial! The nerve! Since the last movie, Mark (Colin Firth) and Bridget had split and Mark had married another, whose name doesn’t even seem worthy of remembering. Not even by Bridget, who certainly doesn’t throughout the film. *snicker*

Work best friend, Miranda, the host of the TV show Jones produces, takes her on a fun-filled weekend at a music festival to celebrate and hopefully get her shagged for her birthday. What an amazing friend! And what do kids do at music festivals? They get drunk, high, go crowd surfing and sleep with strangers. Enter good-looking American with amazing hair, Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey), who happens to be a successful love guru who has written a book about finding the love of your life using algorithms and such. If I was a math geek, we’d have math geek kids. He’s the kind of guy that produces a product that gullible and desperate women buy because they have tried everything else.

Qwant turns out to be a very charming and lovable character that you kinda wish he’d have some sort of deformity to offset his perfect hair. Nope! Doesn’t seem to be the case. In Jones’s drunken stupor the two have a very steamy one-night-stand and ends up with Jones dashing out of there before you can say “how would you like your eggs?” Good for you, Bridge, for getting what you want and keeping the strings unattached!

Bridget Jones's Baby Movie Still 2

A week later, back in London, at Shazzer’s baby’s christening, Darcy and Jones reconnect after the discovery of Darcy’s imminent divorce. Jones gets another steamy night with her ex, and again leaves before the eggs are cooked, remembering why she and Darcy never worked out. He’s a proud, workaholic lawyer who always put work above everything else. How did they ever fall in love?

A few months later, Jones discovers that her pants don’t fit right anymore. It’s not because she’s jumped off the wagon, but because (surprise!) she’s pregnant. She then finds out that the father could be possibly one of two men! I REALLY love the supporting role of Emma Thompson as Dr. Rawlings, Jones’s OBGYN. She is fucking hilarious! Her character doesn’t give a damn who the father is but is cordial enough to play Jones’s game of keep one away from the other.

The rest of the film was just a hilarious jousting of both possible fathers to try to win Bridget’s heart, balanced out with heart-felt touching moments. At times, you felt bad for Darcy as Qwant was a much more formidable foe than Cleaver was. Qwant had the qualities of the guy who could be good for Bridget, but no one knew Bridget better than Darcy. He was her knight in shining armor. Needless to say, after all of Qwant’s efforts and charm and obviously the best choice versus Darcy (at first glance), Bridget got what she really ever wanted: someone to love and understand her for who she is.

I give this third installment in the Bridget Jones trilogy an A- for hilarity, content and vulnerability. It’s relatable and tugs at your heartstrings and keeps you laughing at just the right times. It doesn’t over-do it and it’s sort of nostalgic with pretty much all the roles being reprised by the actor who originally played it. I’d see it again, yeah.

About

When Tristanne is not driving for Uber, she sometimes goes to the theatre for the buttery popcorn. Extra butter, please!

You can reach Tristanne via email or Twitter

View all posts by this author