Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Review

Legacy sequels are nothing new, rarely are they special. Bridget Jones’ Diary has already had one, with Bridget Jones’ Baby. Another piece of the puzzle falls into place with Bridget Jones’ Diary: Mad About the Boy, a relatively tame effort with the added issue of having to adapt to modern rom-com standards. The first in the series was of a refreshing blend. A clear-cut blur of neither romantic lead being of interest to the other, and yet persevering under social pressure. As the years have gone on, the attempts at making Mark Darcy the ideal man have not stopped. Even in death, not a spoiler since the trailer was kind enough to bump Colin Firth off, he is still the attachment Renée Zellweger’s Jones cannot shake. Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) is back too, despite being bumped off in the previous film.  

Yet To Leslie director Michael Morris makes the most of this mess. There is a tenderness to Bridget Jones’ Diary: Mad About the Boy which rests on a knife edge. Where the film may still run through the light-hearted romantic and comedic offerings, it does so with a tinge of grief surrounding it. Selling that mourning process is not beyond Zellweger, whose exceptionally memorable characterisation continues here, a strong performance. Grant still oozes charm as Cleaver, a generally likeable all-rounder who slips into this role like a favourite jacket dumped at the bottom of the wardrobe. There is some heavy lifting between the previous instalment and this which Morris just forgets about but so be it. This is a wild set of transitions which do not quite work. Humanitarian-based death for Darcy is not ideal but it works as best it can as the film has some decent but dull callbacks and replications of scenes.  

From being single to being single in grief, the societal desire to be partnered with someone is discovered here as projection, terrible and embarrassing for the minor characters thrown up to bring it together. When Bridget Jones’ Diary: Mad About the Boy can shift itself from nostalgia, what it finds is a wonderfully well-kept-together character study of Cleaver and Jones who are both trying to find some sense of liberation in the face of grief. Be it a spouse and moving on to new partners, both well-played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall, or in Grant’s case, hanging up the bachelor lifestyle which Jones was chastised for in the first. It is a wonderful, deep world of parallels old and new held together by charmed lead performances and some solid direction from Morris.  

Despite those bits and pieces of maudlin, heart-tugging moments where the needle drops on some faint piano moments, Bridget Jones Diary: Mad About the Boy, is an exceptional return to characters who have grown well. That middle-aged grief paralysis is terrifying. How these characters persevere is the best part of this, even if it does fall to the pratfalls of slim chance romance and a mime performance of Modern Love. Eijiofor as a high-strung schoolteacher is a fantastic addition. A fun piece of romcom work with flashes of the past, not just in nostalgic form. There is a quality continuing through the Bridget Jones’ Diary series which blurs the light comedy sparks and the narrative joys which come from those well-written moments. Its commentaries on what the modern-day perfect relationship is rings rather fascinatingly, navigating those minefields with Jones is, still, rather fun.