Complicated parentage
Bridget Jones’s Baby has been a long time cooking. The last movie – the ropy The Edge of Reason – was 12 years ago, and talk of a third has been around since around 2009. Gestation was bumpy. Paul Feig and then Peter Cattaneo were on board to direct, but the role went to Sharon Maguire, who did the first one. In 2013, Colin Firth braced fans for a “long wait”, and the following year Hugh Grant said he was out, based on his dislike for Helen Fielding and David (One Day) Nicholls’s script.
Emma Thompson was drafted in for a rewrite, but even that couldn’t lure Grant back. It was only a year ago (a heartbeat, in this history), that Patrick Dempsey was recruited.
Can you see traces of such production woes in the final product? How does it bode for any future films in the series? And are you hoping it might precede a movie version of Fielding’s third BJ novel, 2013’s Mad about the Boy, in which a 51-year-old Bridget is widowed with two small children?
No Daniel Cleaver – this time …
Hugh Grant’s departure seems harshly dealt with by the scriptwriters at first: they kill him off in the second scene. But as soon as you hear that his body hasn’t been found, the bet-hedging final shot of the movie (in which he’s revealed – in the Guardian! – to be alive) is inevitable. Would you want to see a return? Or did they get along fine without him?
Who’s the daddy one: did Dempsey ever stand a chance?
Presumably, Dempsey was drafted in as a quasi-replacement for Grant. But does he seem a genuine contender for Bridget’s heart, or her impregnation? Yes, there’s the dates-we-would-have-had sequence, but that can come across as stalkerish. And he fares well on telly, too. Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone actually rooting for him.
Who’s the daddy two: Firth delivers serious gravitas
In part, that’s because Firth has still so comprehensively got it. His performance goes above and beyond, propping up the film with some proper dignity and feeling. Not so much in his reaction when he discovers Bridget has scarpered or that she’s pregnant, and more during his quiet devastation in the restaurant scene, when he learns he might not be a father after all.
Same old Bridget?
It’s not just the face, it’s also the body: lean and trim, at least until she gets heavily pregnant. Has BJ shed any of her soul, along with her cuddliness? How much did the great Zellweger surgery debate prey on your mind while watching the film? A reminder of Peter Bradshaw’s take:
Bridget’s familiar crinkly eyed smile has been replaced by a clearer and more direct gaze. But so what? In some scenes in this film, and from some angles, Zellweger looks to me pretty much the same. At other moments, it’s as if she’s regenerated, like Dr Who. But her Bridget is still the same old klutz
Lastly: how about the accent? Has it improved or worsened? And why does she speak so slowly – presumably the make the accent as possible? Did that jar?
Plot holes
It’s nit-picky, perhaps, but foregrounding the post-birth DNA test before the actual birth might have helped for the payoff. Likewise, a definite sense that Jack was lying about not having worn a condom. Also: when he rocks up on the motorbike to help carry Bridget, couldn’t they have just wheeled her along on the motor rather than struggling to jointly carry her for three miles?
Some people have taken issue with the statistical improbability of a 43-year-old getting randomly pregnant, and then having no complications that weren’t caused by an excess of Pringles. Did this trouble you?
Best jokes
Emma Thompson gives herself a generous portion, but they are crackers and she delivers with brilliant warm wither. The caution to the fathers that they might want to reconsider witnessing the birth from the business end (“My ex-husband said it was like watching his favourite pub burn down”) is clearly the standout. And there are plenty of other contenders, plus terrific slapstick: Peter Bradshaw has highlighted the revolving door incident, as well as Sarah Solemani’s lovely trip in the TV studio.
Worst jokes
They stand out as much for their scarceness as for their datedness, and they barely have punchlines. The observation that some new media folk post pics of their lunch on Instagram, for starters. Plus: “We’re having a baby. A gayby.”
Verdict
Surprised enjoyment seems to have been the general feeling among critics. Is it one you share? Or do you wish they’d stuck to the bereavement book and cut Firth out of the picture?
