There has never been a series quite like Bridget Jones before. Lovably messy female leads like Carrie Bradshaw, Meredith Grey, and Lorelai Gilmore grew up across multiple seasons of television and perhaps even a spin-off film or revival series. But Renée Zellweger’s Bridget Jones is a wholly cinematic creature; a charismatic British everywoman who’s popped up in every decade of the 21st century to check in on her love life, comment on the state of modern womanhood, and remind her loyal viewers that they’re perfect, just as they are. It’s rare that romantic comedies get one sequel, let alone three. And it’s even more rare that the fourth installment, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, is one of the best in the series.
Indeed, don’t be alarmed that Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is going straight to Peacock in the United States. That’s not a sign of a hastily thrown together attempt to milk a piece of IP, so much as a studio preemptively acknowledging that the Bridget Jones franchise has always done better at the box office internationally than domestically. Mad About The Boy is actually quite clearly a labor of love. It’s filled with affectionate homages to the franchise’s most iconic moments and costumes, and features the return of just about every major and minor supporting player from the past three films. Yet it also embraces a more mature, melancholy tone that could very well win over some rom-com skeptics too.
That’s because Mad About The Boy isn’t really a romantic comedy so much as a dramedy about grief. The last time we saw Bridget, she was finally walking down the aisle to marry her long-time love Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). In Mad About The Boy, we learn that Bridget and Mark had two kids and several happy years together, but that he was tragically killed while on a humanitarian mission in Sudan. As the film opens, it’s been four years since Mark’s death and Bridget is just starting to think about a world where she can do anything aside from cocoon herself away as a protective stay-at-home mom dedicated to filling her children’s lives with as much joy as possible.
That does eventually lead her to two potential love interests: Roxster (Leo Woodall), a hunky, much younger park ranger she connects with on Tinder and Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the buttoned-up science teacher at her children’s school. But, despite what the marketing would suggest, romance isn’t the main thing on Mad About The Boy’s mind. Instead, the question of when and if Bridget wants to date again is given the same weight as questions about when and if she wants to return to work, how she can keep Mark alive in her children’s memories, where she fits into the “school mum” hierarchy, and—most moving of all—how she can balance all the contradictory advice about grief from her loving circle of close-knit friends and family.
Where some rom-com sequels heighten their worlds beyond recognition, Mad About The Boy is actually the quietest, most grounded film in the Bridget series—a massive step up from the over-the-top 2004 sequel The Edge Of Reason and an even better return to form than 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby. It’s filled with tearjerking observations about what it’s like to lose a parent or a partner and somehow still find the strength to get out of bed each day. And while new-to-the-franchise director Michael Morris (To Leslie) and Normal People cinematographer Suzie Lavelle give the movie an amber-hued glow and a few nicely otherworldly touches, what makes the film sparkle is its screenplay. It’s an understatement to say that creator-screenwriter Helen Fielding knows these characters inside and out, given that she wrote the original Bridget Jones novels and contributed to all the past films. But it’s remarkable how “right” all the character evolutions feel here with her writing alongside Dan Mazer and Abi Morgan.
Of course Bridget would channel her funny, self-deprecating personality into being an absolutely incredible mother—messy and scattered but also playful and emotionally open. Of course her history and chemistry with Daniel Cleaver (a perfectly used Hugh Grant) would keep him in her life, even though the romantic tension between them is (mostly) gone. And of course her weird conspiratorial bond with her gynecologist (Emma Thompson) would evolve into a half-friend/half-therapist dynamic. The script makes all of Bridget’s returning relationships feel wonderfully lived-in, and the film is all the stronger for it.
The only downside is that the new players struggle to pop in the same way as our returning favorites. Roxster, in particular, never emerges as a three-dimensional person. And if there’s a point to the subplot about Bridget hiring a chic young nanny (Nico Parker), it was left on the cutting room floor. Like the original Bridget Jones movie, Mad About The Boy is more of a series of year-in-the-life vignettes than a story with a strong narrative drive. Only, without the central rom-com throughline, it can become a bit aimless and overlong in its pacing. There are times where Mad About The Boy feels more like a slimmed-down TV show than a finely honed feature.
Still, that’s a small price to pay for a film where Bridget herself is so front and center. For viewers who have spent the past 24 years growing up alongside her, dropping back into her life feels like a warm hug from an old friend. And where Bridget once gave 30-something “singletons” hope that they too could find their Mr. Right, she’s now a beacon for anyone entering an unexpected new era of their life—whether that means losing a partner, parenting alone, or simply dating into your 50s and beyond. Universal Pictures is advertising Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy as the final installment in the franchise, and the film does end on a note that would make for a fitting series capper. But if Zellweger and Fielding want to go on making Bridget Jones romps forever, Mad About The Boy proves they can tackle anything life throws at them.
Director: Michael Morris
Writers: Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan
Stars: Renée Zellweger, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall, Jim Broadbent, Isla Fisher, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant
Release Date: February 13, 2025 (Peacock)
