Bridget Jones’ return to the big screen is already generating a lot of conversation.
Almost a quarter-century since Renée Zellweger made her debut as the iconic Londoner, film number four is about to hit cinemas, reintroducing us to Bridget as a grieving single mum, following the death of her husband, Mark Darcy, years earlier.
The rom-com series holds a special place in many fans’ hearts, so the arrival of a fourth movie – particularly one which takes such a different approach to its predecessors – was always going to spark a wide range of opinions.
And the early reviews for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy have proved that to be the case, with some hailing it as “perfect” and a high-point for the series, and others taking a far more critical approach.
Here’s a selection of what’s been said about the film so far ahead of its cinema release later this week…
The Telegraph (5/5)
“This terrifically funny and well-judged part four – by some distance the best of the bunch – makes a virtue of the cultural shift. Our heroine is now in her 50s, and waist-deep in motherhood – and the differences (and likenesses) between the Bridget we knew and the Bridget she’s become are expertly mined for big laughs and even bigger emotional skewerings.”
The Independent (4/5)
“The Bridget-isms here work with a little bit of a wink and nod, so that even the inevitable appearance of the ‘big knickers’ doesn’t play too overtly as calculated nostalgia [...] it’s less that Bridget Jones has finally matured, and more that she’s shown us how human she really is.”
“It’s a film that both the heart-filled and the heartbroken will find solace in. And it’s that solace — that relatability, that feeling of being seen and known — that Bridget Jones single-handedly pitter-patters into even the coolest of hearts. Bridget is a reminder that you’re not alone in whatever you’re facing.”
iNews (5/5)
“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is perfect. It might have taken 24 years and three tries, but here at last is a sequel worthy of Bridget Jones’s Diary that doesn’t just honour the original, the book, and all the fans who continue to love her, but one that explores grief, the passage of time, motherhood and the endurance of friendship so generously and powerfully that it is a triumph in its own right.”
Empire (4/5)
“In swapping slapstick for sincerity, the film becomes a tender and perceptive depiction of discovering the potential for joy even while enduring such terrible grief. It’s also refreshing to see an older woman as a mother and a sexual being, and there’s no real judgement regarding her fling with a much younger man.”
“I’ll confess I found a lot of the character’s traditional shtick a tad stale [...] But Zellweger wears Bridget like a comfy pair of grandma knickers and her foibles have become endearing. The actress is especially good here at building from the underpinning of sorrow as Bridget slowly comes to realise that her life is not over, and happiness might still be within reach.”
“Where the film really shines is in reuniting Bridget with her faithful friend group, her withering gynecologist and, of course, with Daniel Cleaver, the red flag-laden lothario who represents everything Bridget knew she shouldn’t be attracted to. Grant’s been having a great run lately — scene-stealing Oompa Loompa, outstanding nightmare atheist in Heretic — but in revisiting this old character, he’s a genuine revelation.”
CityAM (4/5)
“[Director Michael Morris has] attempted to create a new genre by directing a rom-com about grief, and while the two aren’t obvious bedfellows, Mad About The Boy tackles adult themes worth investing in without scrimping on opportunities for fun and frivolity.”
The Times (4/5)
“Over three increasingly shambolic movie outings we’ve delighted as this de facto national treasure (deftly done by the Texan actress Renée Zellweger) has boozily pratfallen into mud piles and out of taxis, worrying incessantly about her “wobbly bits”. But you can only play the nincompoop for so long and, thankfully and rather thrillingly, it’s all change here — in a film of sly sobriety and uncommon depths.”
Daily Mail (4/5)
“The poignancy of two young children coming to terms with their father’s death feels real. Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is that rare thing, a tearjerker that also makes you laugh out loud.”
“This edition relies more heavily on sentimentality than previous films, and the Love Actually touch, though laid on rather thick in the second half will give the fans what they want: laughter and tears, plus a rooting interest in Bridget’s ultimate happiness.”
IndieWire (B+)
“There is no Bridget Jones without Renée Zellweger, and the force of her performance and obvious admiration for the role do plenty to skate over any off-kilter beats (a few odd subplots, Bridget’s total lack of concern around money, etc.) with effervescence and pluck. Loving Bridget means wanting to see her succeed. With Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, she does that and more.”
Express (3/5)
“It may come as a surprise that Mad About the Boy is also the most emotional Bridget Jones entry to date [...] On the downside, the movie drags a bit in its overlong two-hour runtime. And although original director Sharon Maguire’s first and third films remain the best (and funniest) overall, there’s still enough to enjoy here.”
Digital Spy (3/5)
“It’s warm and comforting and great to have the gang back together, but at times its humour feels a little reliant on yesteryear too, with some scripted comedic moments seeming dated or done before.”
“If Bridget can gallivant with a doe-eyed stud 25 years her junior, then surely she’d be up for the sort of wild and disheveled, drunken and crazy-stupid, delightfully embarrassing antics that powered the winningly debauched Bridget Jones’s Diary [...] But that, alas, is not the kind of movie this is. It’s not another unhinged Bridget bash — more like a hearts-and-flowers finale.”
The Standard (2/5)
“To paraphrase her own mode of self-criticism, this latest installment in the saga of hapless London singleton Bridget Jones is v v poor. Michael Morris’s film, adapted from Helen Fielding’s fourth novel, is a bloated, weeping sogfest that blunders laboriously through the established tropes of the series.”
The Guardian (2/5)
“The Bridget Jones series has frankly run out of steam [...] The actors are mostly going through the motions, there is so little chemistry between each of the two lead pairings they resemble a panda being forced to mate with a flamingo, and Renée Zellweger’s performance is starting to look eccentric.”
Collider (4/10)
“If [Bridget Jones’s Baby] was a death knell then Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is the lethal injection itself. It’s devoid of all the natural, irreverent humour of the early movies, focusing on being idyllic fanfiction for middle-aged women who dream in their London townhouses of having a fling with a toyboy.”
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 14 February.