Bridget Jones's Baby Review by Chris Hembury

Bridget Jones's Baby ****

Who's the Daddy?

The first signs of another Bridget Jones's sequel arrived with the author Helen Fielding's third book Mad About The Boy. However mixed reviews of the book especially from fans made the green lighting of a film a little dubious. This was in part to (Book Spoiler Alert) the book killing poor Mark Darcy off and having a widowed forty something Jones chase for the affections of a toy boy while Tweeting all about it. A nice book but, yes perhaps not the seeds of box office glory.

However a different screenplay was written instead, meeting approval from all apart from this time Hugh Grant who delightfully played Daniel Cleaver. Ironically a fan of the book but not the screen play and so decided to not to return. How could they make a film without Hugh Grant you ask? Well luckily enough after 12 years TV'S  Grey's Anatomy Patrick Dempsey has just become unemployed and joined the casting ranks as the new love interest.

So after years of productions hell different directors, credited writers, departing actors the film's screenplay was finished, casted, filmed and finally after 12 years the third Bridget Jones Film has arrived! Bridget Jones's Baby....

We follow a 43 year old single Bridget (Renee Zellweger) who's finally doing well in her career but her personal life less so. Living alone again, single again and childless as usual. The only real change is Bridget's age and her Mum reminds her that her biological clock is ticking but after a twist of fate good old Bridget becomes pregnant but is unsure who the father is. Is is A) The Handsome American Jack (Dempsey) she hooked up with at a Music Festival or her old boyfriend Darcy (Colin Firth) she hooked up with at a Christening. Oh how her future Grandchildren will chuckle away at this romantic predicament.     

Well I must say the premise to this third addition of Bridget Jones Diary trilogy didn't exactly set my enthusiasm alight. After all the plot is something inspired by a tame episode of Jeremy Kyle. A forty something singleton is up the duff and can't work out whether the father is her former fiance or some random stranger she bonked at a music festival, dear God not quite Romeo and Juliet is it?

However almost like Guerrilla war fare Bridget Jones's Baby without fail makes every weakness it strength consecutively with out throughout the whole film.

First outstanding obstacle is how to make it's premise work without being tacky, cheap or a little voyeuristic. Here it succeeds bringing the right amount of loneliness and desperation to Bridget's point of life just before she engages on her new found Romances. The pregnancy aspect refreshes the franchise naturally allowing all the characters to grow and explore more new ground instead of completing the same beats like Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason sequel more or less went through with no real character development. 

The replacement of Grant with Dempsey works on a number of levels within the new baby story line as Dempsey character Jack truly cares and has good intentions with is a polar opposite to Daniel Cleaver Grant played. Cleaver was always the wrong to Darcy's right  but here Dempsey has a good kind heart which truly makes him a genuine rival to Darcy as he's someone who could ultimately care for Bridget as much as he could.

Many Studio franchises may have buckled from pressure and created a 12a friendly film made as contemporary as hell to reel in new audiences while simply using the franchise's name to a make a quick buck. Instead they've embraced the film's age even instigating it as the film's main theme making this romantic comedy a more mature, intelligent outing that retains the trademark swearing and relatable characteristics of the previous films.

This film truly does celebrates the films before it with frequent flash backs and winks to the audiences.
This feels like a film made for fans of the franchise that in turns delivers freshness and sweetness to the story of a character that has connected with many people over the years.

A true delight in the writing is the fact it plays on the genre itself. This is not just a romantic comedy but the third in a franchise of the same romantic comedy series. Here audiences are quite aware and prepared for certain plot points, rhythms and familiarities to takes place that can soon become un original and tiresome. But the delight or recognition with Jones's Baby's screenplay is that it's almost self aware of these facts and every time a move is made in the stereotypical direction the screenplay quickly reverts it. Whether it be Mark the gentlemen offering to carry the pregnant Jones only to buckle to her weight. Which ironically Renee Zellweger didn't bring the excess weight with her for the part this time round.

This is true Rom Com fun with a mature twist that draws a feel good aspect from one of cinema's most loved singletons. The only thing missing was Bridget's huge knickers it may not be Shakespeare but I must say it's been a while since I've seen a audience this happy leaving the cinema.

By Chris Hembury