The third film in the Bridget Jones series has her living and breathing for two, in “Bridget Jones’s Baby”. After breaking up with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), Bridget Jones’s (Renee Zellweger) “happily ever after” hasn’t quite gone according to plan. Forty something and single again, she decides to focus on her job as top news producer for a promising company, and surround herself with old friends and new. For once, Bridget has everything completely under control. What could possibly go wrong? Then her love life takes a turn for the crazy and Bridget meets a dashing American named Jack (Patrick Dempsey), the suitor who is everything Mr. Darcy is not. In an unlikely twist she finds herself pregnant, but with one hitch; she can only be fifty percent sure of the identity of her baby’s father. Over the next nine months, the two men outdo each other comically in a mission for fatherly rights. “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is directed by Sharon Maguire, and is rated R for adult language and sexuality involving nudity.
“Bridget Jones’s Baby” is the first movie in the trilogy that I have seen, but never did I feel lost over the course of three premises that each tackle a different life adventure for our title character. This film does a solid job of never alienating the audience who are just now being introduced to its characters, despite a couple of references sprinkled in the screenplay that signal back to the previous efforts. The production team does a great job in editing some previous film footage into the movie, relaying the kind of feelings and emotions that are going through Bridget’s mind as she makes her choice for the perfect significant other. This is a movie that perfectly stands on its own, and a lot of that relies on the aging Jones who sees her hourglass running out from the kinds of things that are important to a woman. With so many mistakes made over the course of her life, she sees this as the perfect time to make everything right. Unfortunately, not all goes as planned, and the movie stirs up some hijinks that really throw our protagonist for a whirlwind of choices that pit her past against her present.
This is a two hour movie, and for a comedy that can be a little overbearing when you are dealing with a story as basic as this one. For me, the second half does tend to drag a little bit, and that is because the concept of comedy is basically thrown out the window for a romantic genre. I certainly expected that this movie would cater to the female audience by giving us a wacky love story, but I was very surprised at how much it sacrificed its most fluent of screen times to get there. For the first act, I did enjoy the pacing of a story that used awkward humor as delicately as it did. Nothing felt too over the top or predictable when it comes to the setup, and for those first thirty minutes or so, I really found this movie to be a comical delight. Then the drop out happens. For some reason during the second half, we start to feel the prick of the pen from three different screenwriters each colliding with creative backfires. The movie’s material suddenly felt very forced, and as a result we get a lot of jokes that fall flat with their target destination. This is a movie that you can slowly see the life draining from it and this immense run time, and it starts to feel routine when you notice all of the juggling it tries to pursue with engaging subplots.
Somewhere underneath all of this is a final cut that spans around 100 minutes that easily removes some of those unnecessary aspects that took too much away from the central arc. For whatever reason, the script focuses on everything from Jones workplace battle with a power hungry new boss, to her Mother running for political office. None of this ever felt interesting or smooth in transition with the romantic triangle that this movie’s trailers focused so heavily on. I was really expecting more of a rivalry from Firth and Dempsey’s predicament, but it just kind of fizzled out after a five minute montage that served as some of the best material of the movie. When these two male leads collide, it does provide some hearty moments of laughter for the dueling personalities that couldn’t be any more different. I commend this movie for having the guts to give us a clear cut winner in this mystery of who is the father, even if it does feel like it’s pulling one way. If you really think about the previous films, you will probably know the outcome of this conflict. That’s my biggest problem with the most appealing arc of this movie; the playing field never feels quite even between the two men. I found myself easily predicting the outcome of this debate, but the real applause from me comes from a winner even being picked, as to where most movies take the easy way out in similar conflicts.
What pushes this movie through to passable territory is the work of a stellar cast of mostly British actors, who really make the most of each role big and small. Colin Firth has always been one of my favorite actors, and that’s because of how many different genres he succeeds at. Here as Mark, Firth’s quiet albeit wooden exterior benefits well to the straight man to Dempsey’s off-the-wall approach. I mentioned before how they couldn’t be any more different, but Firth feels more well-grounded for the sort of parenting role that his character has been waiting his whole life for. Dempsey has never been someone who I have fond recollections of, but I can say that this is easily my most enjoyable role that he has taken on so far. As Jack, Dempsey combines boyish good looks with a polite personality that makes him very irresistible to the female audience watching. He and Firth have remarkable chemistry for taking two very different roads in their acting profession, and I frankly could’ve used more of a competitive side from their characters. Renee Zellweger could pretty much portray Miss Jones in her sleep at this point, but what keeps us coming back is this vulnerable woman who never seems to age mentally. Zellweger dazzles as this sort of woman-child whose journey always takes the strangest routes, and there’s great relate-ability to a character so down to earth. I also enjoyed a rich cameo turn by one of the screenwriters herself, film veteran Emma Thompson. Thompson is only in a handful of scenes, but I couldn’t get enough of her dry delivery every time another aspect of Jones pregnancy gets revealed. Emma’s reactions give this movie the boot in the right direction creatively, and rounds out an experienced cast that elevates a lukewarm script that can play everything a little too crowded.
Overall, “Bridget Jones’s Baby” might be a late arrival, with its twelve year gap in movies, but it’s a fun time of awkward humor that hits the board when it feels genuine. Despite a run time that has the movie feeling a little crowded and jaded, the charm of a trio of leads is hard to deny that this “Baby” cuts the cord of failed sequel comedies whose repetition in material always hinders their stand alone value.
6/10