This is the fourth installment in the series of films that began with Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). That romantic comedy went on to gross $281 million in the worldwide box office. It put that film in the Top 10 highest-grossing romantic comedies of all-time. Currently, it's in the Top 20 of highest-grossing rom-coms globally. Domestically, it made a decent $71 million. The sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) made a little less. Over the course of the next decade, rom-coms suffered a decline. The third installment, Bridget Jones's Baby (2016) only grossed $24 million in the United States, which is probably why this film didn't get a theatrical release in the USA but instead internationally, which is where the films have made the most money anyway. The films have really been a hit in the UK. This film is no different, also making bank in Australia, France and Germany.
Based on the novels by Helen Fielding, the narrative follows a British woman who lives in London who works in media. She started in book publishing and moved into TV production. When we first meet her, she was 32 and struggling with her dating life. Back then, she was worried about becoming an old spinster and alone. She was representative of the modern-day woman balancing work life and her love life, at least on the big screen. Audiences were already getting a weekly dose of that in shows like Ally McBeal (1997) and Sex and the City (1998). Like Ally McBeal and Sex and the City, this film had a similar template of a 30-something woman being neurotic, frequently clumsy with pratfalls and talked to herself constantly with voice-over narration.
Renée Zellweger did win the Oscar for Best Actress for Judy (2019). This is her first theatrical film role since then. Her Bridget Jones is now in her 50's and again is a single woman, facing the prospect of being a spinster and alone. Yet, what's different now is that Bridget is a mother to two children with whom she had with her late husband, Mark Darcy, played by Oscar-winner Colin Firth (The King's Speech and A Single Man). Every film has Bridget essentially being in a love triangle where two men are vying for her affection. One of the men will be someone she sees regularly and the other will be one she encounters randomly. For anyone who has seen those previous features, she's fallen in love with various suitors but the true love seems to have been Mark Darcy. She ends up with him at the end of all three of the previous features. If he were in this film, the outcome would only be quadruple obvious.
Mark Darcy is only a ghost in this film and a lot of it is about Bridget and her two children mourning him, so this film is largely about grief and moving on from it. Yet, at the same time, it's also about following the same template as the previous films, particularly the 2001 entry. That template has Bridget meeting one guy who is more serious, more uptight, and perhaps not as much fun on the surface. She then meets a second guy who is more charming, more of a playboy and definitely more of a laugh. Mark Darcy was the first type of guy. At first, he seemed like Bridget's unlikely choice, which is why her ending up with him was such the surprise at the end.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave and Kinky Boots) co-stars as Scott Walliker, a science teacher at the school where Bridget's son attends. He's a little bit more outwardly aggressive than Mark Darcy was, but Mark Darcy was aggressive as evidenced by the ending of the first film. So, if you look at archetypes, Scott Walliker is the closest match to Mark Darcy. It makes it predictable with whom Bridget will end up. Knowing that isn't necessarily a bad thing but if the film doesn't sell it, it's an empty exercise.
One could argue that the first film didn't sell Bridget's relationship and love for Mark Darcy, beyond the two having a physical attraction that felt undeniable and him complimenting her once. Yet, that never felt like enough upon which to build a true-love story. The film kept throwing them together in social situations, which were awkward but that kept reinforcing their attraction, which felt like a bubbling emotion. It was palpable to some degree. Again, having a certain attraction is arguably not enough to build a true-love story, but it was certainly more than this film has between Bridget and Scott. This film doesn't even establish any kind of real attraction between the two until almost the end of the film where we get an obligatory beefcake shot of Ejiofor, which even then it's not sure if Bridget's obvious lust for his body is even reciprocated. That in itself would have been fine, if the film had done more to invite us into Scott's world. In the first film, we met Mark Darcy's family and friends. Here, we meet no one in Scott's world. We met Mark Darcy's mother in the opening to that 2001 flick. We don't meet any of the Walliker family.
Leo Woodall (One Day and The White Lotus) plays Roxster, a biochemist student who is 29-years-old, which would make him about 25 years younger than Bridget. He says he's into older women, which is why he pursues Bridget after randomly running into her at the park. Other than his interest in older women, the only thing we get is how sexy he is. He gets more than one beefcake shot. He's eye-candy for sure, but we get nothing more from him or even about him. There's certainly no examination as to why he's into older women. For example, how many older women has he dated? If he has dated older women, why isn't he with one now? If he hasn't, what really made him pick Bridget? Where does he see himself in the future as it relates to Bridget and especially her kids who see him as a potential father figure rather quickly. Ultimately, not delving deeper into Roxster makes it easier for the film to dismiss him later but he should feel more like a person rather than an idea.
This film seems to simply want to play with the idea of a May-December relationship and the idea of Bridget being with a younger man rather than really digging deep and exploring it. This is a rom-com, so expecting that kind of depth might be unreasonable, but this film does start with us learning that Mark Darcy has died and having Bridget deal with that loss and the accompanying grief, so it sets a tone that makes expecting some kind of depth not unwarranted. Recently, several films and television programs have dealt with a May-December romance, involving an older woman and younger man. There was literally the Oscar-nominated film May December (2023), as well as The Idea of You (2024) and Babygirl (2024). The Idea of You was probably the closest in tone to this film and even it made the age-gap issue more of an issue than this film does. If this film hadn't brought it up at all, it wouldn't matter at all, but this film purposefully brings it up and then really doesn't do anything substantial with it or so little as to generate shrugs instead of real dramatic or even comedic impact.
Finally, another issue that is brought up but not really explored or developed substantially is the issue of science-versus-faith. Scott seems to be an atheist and a true man of science, almost stubbornly so. Yet, Bridget is a woman who seems to believe in an afterlife and souls. The two clash at one point because Bridget wants to reassure her kids that their late father is in Heaven, but Scott is more of a realist. Aside from one scene where they clash, this fundamental difference is practically brushed over.
Rated R for language and some sexual references.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 4 mins.
Available on Peacock.
