She's Back -- And Better Than Ever: Bridget Jones's Baby

While a huge fan of Bridget Jones’s Diary, I was hesitant when I heard the premise of the latest installment in the Bridget Jones universe. Bridget’s pregnant and – plot twist – doesn’t know whose baby it is. She must choose between two men, groundbreaking territory. But reviews of its warmth and wit made me take the plunge halfheartedly, watching while doing some writing. Any notion of accomplishing anything quickly disappeared as I was sucked into Bridget Jones’s Baby.

While the plot sounds like silly romcom fodder, the resulting film is indeed as warm and witty as I’d read. It has its silly moments, but this newest Bridget sits nicely in the modern world, 16 years after her classic misadventures. Bridge balances two men, as is her special gift; deals with a new, tyrannical, “hipster Nazi” boss (an amusing and terrifying turn by Kate O’Flynn in her natural no-nonsense Northern accent); and settles awkwardly and tenderly into her new role as mother.

Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth as Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy are exactly who we love them to be, desperately fallible and incredibly likable, just the way they are. Patrick Dempsey’s “shiny new American” is a fun foil. And although he never feels like a real threat to Firth’s Darcy, his character allows for some incredibly tender musings on when to let go of, and when to hold onto the people we love. It’s our great luck that we get to hang onto Bridget and co. for a while longer.