Opening soon at a theater near you, Bridget Jones is pregnant, much older, and still funny.
Bridget Jones’s Baby (Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones) – The third installment of the Bridget Jones trilogy plays the same tune as the previous films, which is good news for the devotees of the franchise. That doesn’t make Bridget Jones’s Baby a great movie; it’s not. But it also doesn’t mean it’s awful; it’s not. Baby is an enjoyable farce with a predictable plot, contrived conflicts, familiar characters, and a happy ending.
It’s a romantic comedy (“rom-com”), which has become an endangered species. Rom-coms depend on exceptional writing, the kind that primarily lives on television these days. Even then, it is in short supply. Drama is so much easier to write, particularly because so many movies are based on books. Comedy is tough, even when there is a book to serve as source material. Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, both of whom got their starts in television, remain mainstays of the movie comedy.
Sequels are rarely as good as the originals; most fail. The Bridget Jones series reminds me of the Back To The Future films. The first was great; the second was comparatively awful; and the third was an improvement from the middle disaster. Bridget Jones’ Baby is perfectly enjoyable but hardly memorable. With 12 years since the last installment, the audience will feel like they are at their first high school class reunion in many years. Everybody looks markedly older but not better. And when the night is over, you are happy that you went but wonder where all the good years had gone.
Renee Zellweger recaptures Bridget. She’s the down-on-her-luck, marginally successful news producer who is without love and surrounded by her quirky family (Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones play her parents), odd co-workers, and harmless but narcissistic friends. She still pines for Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) but he is married to someone else. She goes on a singles weekend with her airhead network anchor friend and winds up shagging a handsome stranger (Patrick Dempsey, McDreamy himself) who happens to be an Internet mogul. As can only happen in a rom-com, she reunites with Mark a week later. Voila, a few weeks later she finds out she is pregnant.
Eventually, she tells both guys that either could be the father. Rather than do the amniocentesis that could solve the mystery – and save us 30 painful, distracting minutes in the theater – the writers try to resurrect the Hugh Grant-Colin Firth rivalry that worked in Jones I. It doesn’t work here but it sets up the funniest scenes in the film. Unlike the Grant character, there is nothing to hate about Dempsey’s rich guy. But we’re rooting for Mark because he is so terribly dull but obviously in love. The movie reaches its denouement as Bridget has her baby.
As I left the movie, my first comment was “Thank goodness Emma Thompson was in this movie.” Thompson makes every movie better. This time, she was one of the writers, an executive producer, and perfect as Bridget’s obstetrician. She steals the movie, thank goodness.
Okay, okay, I’ll wade into the plastic surgery question. If Zellweger had it, it didn’t make her look younger. Her character is supposed to be 43; she is actually 47; and she looks 50. I recommend she stop the series at three. A fine actress – an Academy Award winner – she needs to find new roles quickly before she catches Meg Ryan disease. Fair or not, mature women’s roles are hard to find unless you are Meryl Streep. Zellweger is too good to stay off the big screen.
Bridget Jones’ s Baby opens soon and it is worth seeing if you liked the previous editions. Just don’t expect too much. After all, it’s your 30th reunion and everybody looks older.