In the fourth and final installment of the film series, we meet Bridget Jones once again. We fell in love with the character when Renée Zellweger first brought her to the screen 24 years ago. But at the same time, she is not the same as before.
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02-12, 2025Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) died in a landmine accident in Sudan four years ago, leaving Bridget a widowed mother with two children, still struggling to cope with the pain of losing her love. (This is not a spoiler, but the entire premise of the new film, which is adapted from Helen Fielding's 2013 novel of the same name, part of the Bridget Jones series.)
Zellweger believes that the character's transformation is crucial to the continuation of Bridget's story, as is the death of Mr. Darcy. "In every Bridget movie, it's a reintroduction, she's in a different stage, learning different things," Zellweger said in an interview with ABC RN's The Screen Show. "She's a mother, she's grieving, you're never the same person at different stages of life, you're never the same person after experiencing loss."
Zellweger continued: "It changes you, it changes your values and your perspective. The stakes are so high now for the decisions she makes because it's not just about her anymore, it's about her children." While Bridget is still very vulnerable, still suffers from self-deprecating inner dialogues, and is still a completely transparent mess-maker, in *Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy*, she is no longer obsessed with things like weight or drinking.
She still doubts whether she is good enough and compares herself to the other mothers at the school gate, but now she spends more time exploring "the challenging parts of life," as Zellweger puts it, so that she can answer a new set of questions. Namely: how to continue living and loving after losing a loved one, while being a good mother and maintaining her self-identity. The camera spends time alone with her in a way it never has before. And there are no love triangles or fight scenes to be seen. The result is a film that is distinctly different in style and tone from the Bridget Jones movies we are used to.
*Mad About the Boy* still has plenty of romantic comedy elements: In Bridget's early attempts to re-enter the dating scene, a friend signs her up for Tinder under the name "Tragic Widow Seeks Sexual Awakening." She is quickly matched with a 29-year-old "tree-saving Adonis" inexplicably named Roxster (Leo Woodall), she soon experiences the "ghosting" phenomenon firsthand, and fiddles with her lips, inflating them to disastrous proportions. She argues endlessly with her elementary-aged son's new, ridiculously attractive science teacher/Mr. Darcy replacement, Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Hugh Grant somehow delivers his funniest performance ever as aging womanizer Daniel Cleaver, who doesn't let his newfound need for compression socks stop him from pursuing 20-something models. But director Michael Morris (the first man to direct a Bridget Jones film) says that *Mad About the Boy* is better described as a "sad-com" than a true rom-com.
After producing and directing the second and third seasons of *13 Reasons Why*, Morris saw Bridget Jones as the perfect vehicle for exploring loss through the lens of comedy rather than drama, and both he and Zellweger felt we needed more of that. "Renée has been the main voice, saying we shouldn't just make a Bridget Jones movie because we can, especially if it's the last chapter. You make one because there's a really compelling story to tell," he said. "Comedy is a way to get close to characters, and Bridget (brings) extra intimacy because we've known her for so long, and I think it's inspiring to see how someone so happy deals with something so difficult."
He said there is a "universality" in the fact that everyone makes the same mistakes when dealing with grief. "We all do the best we can, we need the help of friends and family to give us strength, and eventually rediscover joy and life when the time is right, (without) turning away from those we've lost." Mr. Darcy's death feels insurmountable at first, both for the audience and for Bridget herself.
But the aforementioned conspicuously young Adonis and quirky, beefy elementary school science teacher make things shamefully quick and easy, adding an unrepentant touch of horniness to this poignant meditation on grief in a way that somehow not only feels natural, but utterly necessary. In some ways, *Mad About the Boy* feels like one of a recent string of films attempting to destigmatize age-gap relationships between older women and younger men—think *The Idea of You*, *A Family Affair*, and *The Baby Girl*.
But even as the younger man, Woodall doesn't think *Mad About the Boy* is trying to say too much about age-gap relationships. "I think it's more about what Bridget herself is going through, which is grief and motherhood, and wanting to have more joy in her life," he said. Morris agreed, saying that while there are age-related tensions in Bridget and Roxster's relationship from the start, their problems aren't because they live in "different worlds." "It's actually a product of his fears and insecurities. Whether they're ultimately right for each other is not just about her age...it's more about timing and where they are in their lives."
(Though Morris does hope that *Mad About the Boy* can add something to the age-gap romance conversation: "I'm not so naive (to think) that one movie can change the world...but I do think that a series of movies coming out at the same time can spark a conversation that happens in the media, in living rooms, and in restaurants, and those conversations can change attitudes.") As Bridget and Roxster try to figure out what they want from each other, Mr. Wallaker is undergoing a separate transformation off-screen.
Ejiofor said the role was a "roller coaster": "(Mr. Wallaker) starts off very reserved, which was fun, but then some very interesting things happen..." Longtime fans of the series may have already guessed how the story ends: we know that the Bridget we met more than two decades ago is dead. "It's an inevitability, isn't it? Society is evolving, and girls are evolving," Zellweger said. Long live Bridget Jones.
