by Frank Calvillo
One of the glaring flaws of Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third installment of the beloved chick-flick film series, is that it doesn’t take a great deal of time in explaining just where Bridget has been since audiences last saw her. Oh the audiences are given updates, sure. But they are never fully keyed in on the journey she’s taken over the last decade and especially the small, yet valuable moments which have made the character so endearing. However thanks to a script by Helen Fielding (author of the book series) and co-star Emma Thompson, not to mention an always-reliable performance from its lead actress, audiences will do nothing but rejoice as they celebrate the return of their favorite lovable singleton.
In Bridget Jones’s Baby, the titular character, once again played by Renee Zellweger, finds herself content, if not perfectly settled, with her current life. Though still single, Bridget enjoys a top-level career as a producer of a popular TV news show and has also finally reached her ideal weight. When it’s revealed that Bridget is suddenly pregnant, she must try and figure out whether her eternally sullen ex-boyfriend Mark (Colin Firth) or the charming American entrepreneur Jack (Patrick Dempsey) is the father of her child as she enters another new roller coaster period of her life.
Any hope of Bridget Jones’s Baby succeeding hinges solely on the main character herself. To try and change her too much would alienate longtime fans, while keeping her in the same place emotionally would turn the same group off. Thankfully, the minds behind the film know this. It will be a pleasure and relief for fans to know that Bridget retains the same kinds of fears, hopes, contentment and disillusionment that everyone faces. The novelty of the film therefore is seeing how that specific character copes with yet another milestone in life, which everyone seems to have figured out but her. By having Bridget face motherhood as well as getting older, not to mention all the horror which comes along with both, they do right by both the character and the audience, who have all grown with Bridget as well, no doubt having faced the same fears and milestones themselves since they last saw her.
That’s not to say that Bridget Jones’s Baby isn’t without its flaws. The most glaring of these is that as warm a person as Bridget naturally is, she doesn’t seem to bond with her baby all that much during her pregnancy, instead focusing on two men, as she’s wont to do. Beyond this, it’s a bit frustrating to see that for as much as she’s grown and achieved in her life, Bridget still hasn’t gained as much courage as she should have by this point when confronted with monumental circumstances. There’s still a part of her that’s afraid to fully stand up. Strangely enough though, none of this matters in the face of relatability, which is Bridget’s one trait Fielding and company have ensured remains in tact.
Absent from the big screen for six years, Zellweger makes her return to film with Bridget Jones’s Baby. The film is the perfect project to take on following her extended hiatus as it is the actress’s most iconic character and the one she seems to know inside and out as evidenced by her work here. Zellweger plays Bridget as if she’s never left her, showcasing her fears and vulnerability in excellent and infectious ways. As her two love interests, Firth goes through the motions as Mark, while Dempsey is frustratingly perfect as the kind of guy all the OTHER guys would love to pummel. Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones are slightly underused as Bridget’s parents, but Thompson enjoys her role as a dryly cynical obstetrician.
When the first trailer for Bridget Jones’s Baby was released, some complaints surfaced criticizing the fact that this was the first time that Zellweger had not put on weight to portray Bridget Jones, a character well-known to have a long history of issues with body image. A producer quickly commented that the move was intentional and that the filmmakers wanted to illustrate how weight was no longer an issue for Bridget, who was now happy with her size, but was still searching for something else missing from her life. On some level, isn’t everyone?
