With Emma Thompson added into the writing mix, Bridget Jones’s Baby is a surprisingly effective sequel
“There was life in the old dog yet”
I have to admit my expectations for Bridget Jones’s Baby were not particularly high. Having enjoyed the first film, the first sequel felt like a real slog and knowing that Hugh Grant wasn’t in this second return to the Bridget-verse, I was sceptical about its chances. But 15 years on from Bridget Jones’s Diary and released from the requirement to adapt Helen Fielding’s novels, it actually marks a really interesting progression for these oh so familiar characters.
Amusingly, the first thing that pops up is the revelation that Bridget shares the same birthday as me but that aside, things have changed a lot. Grant’s Daniel Cleaver has died in a plane crash, Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy is married to someone else and Bridget has transitioned into television production. Co-worker and new bestie Miranda (an excellent Sarah Solemani) is determined to get Bridget laid for her birthday and drags her to a music festival where Ed Sheeran is awkwardly present.
There, she bumps into Patrick Dempsey’s improbably handsome Jack and has a drunken one night stand. Then a few days later, she attends the christening of a pal’s baby where she reconnects with Mark, who it turns out is getting a divorce. A couple of months down the line, Bridget realises she’s pregnant and can’t be sure whose it is but what follows is much more mature than you might expect, a reflection on how life’s shenanigans hit differently when you’re in your 40s.
Dempsey and Firth play out the rivalling potential daddies with both amusement and pathos and Renée Zellweger’s return to the screen after six years away feels similarly layered, aided by an acknowledgement that the character has lost weight and so fat jokes are mercifully thin on the ground (although still present somewhat…). Emma Thompson’s wryly observant doctor is another strong addition to the company, always ready with a quip and a speculum.
The franchise element means there’s a whole wealth of returning characters who aren’t given anywhere near enough to do. Gemma Jones is the exception as Bridget’s mum campaigning for local office but Jim Broadbent is neglected as her dad; James Callis, Shirley Henderson and Sally Phillips’ trio of best friends all now have unexplored partners and children which feels a bit of a wasted narrative opportunity; and Celia Imrie is still popping in for what must be 5 minutes work per film!
The great Kate O’Flynn is well utilised as the snarky new boss of the TV channel, Neil Pearson’s swooningly bearded Richard still present and correct alongside her, and overall, the air is of amiable warmth, the comfort of familiar slippers sliding right back on even after years away.
