Breaking up with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) leaves Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) over 40 and single again. Feeling that she has everything under control, Jones decides to focus on her career as a top news producer. Suddenly, her love life comes back from the dead when she meets a dashing and handsome American named Jack (Patrick Dempsey). Things couldn’t be better, until Bridget discovers that she is pregnant. Now, the befuddled mom-to-be must figure out if the proud papa is Mark or Jack.
I will say that I haven’t seen any Bridget Jones films but I am familiar with the character. I am also a fan of Renée Zellweger. It’s a shame that she hasn’t done much within the last decade or so because she is a great actress. The recent controversy surrounding her appearance didn’t help either. It was still surprising seeing this one 15 years after the original, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and 12 years after the sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Here we find Bridget (Zellweger) hitting a rut in her life. Now into her thirties, she has her life under control and has a great job as a television news producer but underneath, she is still single and lonely. She believes that her time is running out. Everyone in her life, including her friends and family, want her to put herself out there. Bridget was very likable and her own struggle was real which made it easy to relate to her. She just wants to be happy. In order to try and better her life, she decides to live her life differently by taking more chances.
One day, she goes out with her friend Miranda (Sarah Solemani) and quickly meets a handsome stranger named Jack (Dempsey). One thing leads to another and they have relations. Not thinking much about it and him, she moves on with her life. Things get more complicated for her when and old boyfriends named Mark Darcy (Firth) comes back into the picture. Mark is now married to a woman named Camilla (Agni Scott). They seemingly have moved on with each other’s lives but they still have feelings for one another. One thing leads to another and they have relations as well. Not too long after those encounters, Bridget learns that she is pregnant (hence the title) but the problem for her is that she doesn’t know who the father is.
She is conflicted in that she doesn’t know how to handle her current predicament. To help her is the witty obstetrician named Dr. Rawlings (Emma Thompson). After spending time with Jack and due to her past feelings for Mark, she strings them both along as she’s not sure how to tell them and she doesn’t want to hurt either man. Of course this doesn’t last but once her secret is out, they surprisingly decide to all work together for the sake of the baby. The chemistry between Bridget and Mark has already been established through multiple films and the inclusion of Jack does not disrupt anything since all three showed great chemistry, especially Mark and Jack. Bridget was fun to watch and all three were fun as well.
This film was surprisingly funny in how it kept putting Bridget in awkward situations as she was an awkward person herself. Watching her go through these situations was tremendous. These situation were propped up not only by the fantastic dialogue but through Zellweger’s performance. The fact that she felt like a real person just made it all better. Just the fact that all the characters felt like real people made these situations feel more believable and thus more funny. This continued with the dramatic moments of the film as these real characters were dealing with real situations. This made these more compelling to watch.
The acting was excellent here with Zellweger being the obvious standout. She brought a considerable amount of energy and charm in her performance, exuding likability with relative ease. This likability propelled her through the film. Her comedic timing was exceptional, elevated the film’s more comedic moments. Firth and Dempsey were both good and likable. Seeing the contrast between Mark and Jack being played out on screen was very interesting to say the least. They both played well off of each other, elevated by their great chemistry. The film may have wrapped itself up a little too nicely and the open-ended ending may frustrate some. The film may also be a touch too long, clocking in at just over 2 hours.
Overall, this was a fun dramedy with a great script and great direction, elevated by an excellent performance by Renée Zellweger.
Score: 9/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
