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James Mottram

4/5 stars
Crack out the chardonnay. Bridget Jones is back.
Usually, a fourth film in a series does not inspire confidence, and the third Bridget Jones instalment, 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby, was something of a letdown. But Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy manages to be both funny and poignant.
Now in her middle years, Bridget (Renée Zellweger) is again on her own. Her beloved Mark Darcy, father of her children Billy and Mabel, died on a humanitarian mission in Sudan four years earlier. She has her friends, but no man in her life – until she meets 29-year-old Roxster (One Day’s Leo Woodall, excellent).


Can a relationship between a younger man and a middle-aged woman survive? That is one of the questions in a script that effortlessly blends topics such as overcoming grief with the sort of lightweight comedy the Bridget Jones films – and books by Helen Fielding – are known for.
It never feels forced, perhaps because you sense that everyone wanted to come back for this one.
A delightful Hugh Grant returns as the lecherous Daniel Cleaver, still chasing models but gradually realising his life has become a tad “tragic” with no next of kin. Emma Thompson’s no-nonsense gynaecologist is back too, while Colin Firth reappears as Darcy in ways that will move you.
Best of all, Zellweger relaxes into the title role from the off, whether it is buying a bulk load of condoms in front of her kids’ new science teacher Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) or arriving at work with her hair all over the place after her first night of passion with Roxster.

This is Bridget in the Tinder age, and you suspect a lot of people – men and women – who have taken the plunge into the world of online dating will relate. Only one slapstick scene, where she tries a lip serum with disastrous effects, feels out of place.
Directed by Michael Morris (To Leslie), who brings a freshness to Bridget’s London, there are nods back to the earlier movies – from her flat in Borough Market to her clothing choices.
But a story that is consistently funny – the use of Dinah Washington’s “Mad About The Boy” is a real high point – never loses sight of advancing Bridget as a character. She is no longer the sad, wine-swigging singleton but someone more mature, more relatable – more likeable even.
As one character in the film says: “Now that, my darling, is what you call a rebrand.”
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Bridget Jones is back for a fourth film, and director Michael Morris brings a freshness to the franchise while nodding to the earlier movies


Bridget Jones is back for a fourth film, and director Michael Morris brings a freshness to the franchise while nodding to the earlier movies.


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Review | Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy movie review – charming romance sequel for the Tinder age

Bridget Jones is back for a fourth film, and director Michael Morris brings a freshness to the franchise while nodding to the earlier movies