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Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy: This fourth movie sees Renée Zellweger (Judy) return as the unlucky-in-love ditzy heroine, this time with two children around the age of 10, and despite ending up with Mark Darcy at the end of Bridget Jones’ Baby, she’s now a widow, yet still imagines him popping up all over the place, as we all do when someone passes away.
Although as she says in Darcy’s (Colin Firth – Lockerbie: A Search For Truth) case, he was killed in Sudan on a humanitarian mission, four years earlier, and it’s coming up to the anniversary.
Meanwhile, after being apparently found in the closing moments of the last film, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant – Heretic, Paddington In Peru) is alive and well and still sowing his seed any way he can, his appearance without further explanation making me feel like we’ve missed a film inbetween, but then I understand this film is a mix of two books, rather than directly being taken from one.
However, there’s no hanky-panky between him and the leading lady, as while he chases younger women, here, he’s only babysitting Bridget’s kids, but stating how he only has one of his own, a teenage lad called Enzo, from whom he’s estranged.
She can’t get a minute to herself, which isn’t helped by the fact that for some unknown reason, her kids share a bunkbed in the same room, instead of having their own rooms, even though there’ll be enough room in that house, given the size of the downstairs footprint, but she’s encouraged to get out and about in the dating world again, since Shazzer (Sally Phillips – We Might Regret This) tells her that at her age, the vagina will seal up if she doesn’t.
After climbing a tree, the first male specimen comes in the form of young man Roxster (Leo Woodall – Prime Target) who, after helping her down, elicits an amusing exchange where he asks innocently, “Anything else I can help you with?”, to which she answers only in her mind, “God, yes!”
The other is the closer-in-age school teacher Mr. Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor – Venom: The Last Dance), but whomever she sleeps with, the men get their tops off, but she never does. Typical Hollywood imbalance…
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy rather slows down in the second half, and is bloated with far too many tertiary characters, such as when she goes to a dinner party early on, which is full of people with EVERYONE having to say something. Even still, I saw Doctors‘ Al Haskey – Ian Midlane – is in the cast as Paul, but if he had any lines, they must’ve been cut out, as I didn’t see him pop up at all!
A few random asides about the film:
- I thought they’d done away with opening credits, but no, for a film running 125 minutes, this one’s credits come 17 minutes into the film.
- I’m not sure the name of Bridget’s colleague who had a birthday party, but with her sizable assets, she’ll be the winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Dress!
- The film has a budget of $50m, a staggering amount for what amounts to a basic rom-com, and I can’t see where the money was spent. In the UK, it took a huge £12m at the box-office, though, on the opening weekend. However, It’s gone straight to streaming in the US, on Peacock. I guess they have no idea who she is.
- At one point, Bridget’s daughter, Mabel, puts her recorder up her nose, making me think of the one and only Ralph Wiggum.
Overall, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is good. It’s fine… but it just felt like episode 4 of a TV series, not anything revolutionary, or to get excited about.
It hints along the way that it’ll be the last film, and that’s what’s been said before its release, but even though there are photos and video clips of the previous films in the credits, I wouldn’t be surprised that they make another, given how much money this is taking at the box office.
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credit scenes, but as mentioned, the credits feature photos and video clips of the previous films in the credits.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 125 minutes
Release date: February 13th 2025
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7/10
Director: Michael Morris
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jo Wallett
Screenplay: Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan
Novel: Helen Fielding
Music: Dustin O’Halloran
Cast:
Bridget Jones: Renée Zellweger
Mabel: Mila Jankovic
Billy Darcy: Casper Knopf
Geminita: Elena Rivers
Daniel Cleaver: Hugh Grant
Roxster: Leo Woodall
Mr. Wallaker: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Mark Darcy: Colin Firth
Jeremy: Neil Edmond
Shazzer: Sally Phillips
Woney: Dolly Wells
Cosmo: Mark Lingwood
Joanne: Anat Dychtwald
Julia: Penny Stuttaford
Michael: Ben Illis
Magda: Claire Skinner
Hugo: James Rawlings
Jane: Ruth Gibson
Henrietta: Jane Fowler
Alistair: Toby Whithouse
Paul: Ian Midlane
Tom: James Callis
Jude: Shirley Henderson
Pamela Jones: Gemma Jones
Dr. Rawlings: Emma Thompson
Miranda: Sarah Solemani
Richard Finch: Neil Pearson
Colin Jones: Jim Broadbent
Postman: Jeff Mirza
Rebecca: Isla Fisher
Francesca: Ellie White
Bikram: Rohan Berry
Nicolette: Leila Farzad
Victor Soltani-Watkins: Seb Cardinal
Cosmata: Isla Ashworth
Talitha: Josette Simon
Cathy: Joanna Scanlan
Una: Celia Imrie
Chloe: Nico Parker
Russ the Checkout Guy: Oli Green
Chemist: Julie Bartlett
Esmeralda: Maggie Livermore
Binko Carruthers: Sebastian Dunn
Linus: Zheng Xi Yong
Priscilla: Daisy Duczmal
Enzo: Alessandro Bedetti
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.