Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy ★★★★★

Released: 13 February 2025

Director: Michael Morris

Starring: Renee Zellweger, Leo Woodall, Hugh Grant, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Dear diary, it’s that time of the year again. Valentine’s Day. Kinda ew I suppose in the modern age of posting cringing sentiments of love on social media. Kinda sweet, I guess. My plans of course didn’t include romantic gestures or a meal for two but a solo trip to see Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. After the three previous chapters I expected to leave feeling joyful after laughing my ass off for a few hours. No one told me I would be bawling my eyes out instead. The fourth and final chapter of Bridget Jones’ story isn’t just about her getting her best shag on again with a younger toy boy, but the rawness of getting older along with the complexities of navigating grief.

The last time we saw Bridget (Renee Zellweger) was back in 2016, she had a baby and finally married her long-time love Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). To break the sad news, Darcy died. While Bridget and Mark lived a blissful few years together, along with their two children, he was unexpectedly killed while working on a humanitarian mission in Sudan. When we catch up with Bridget it is four years after the tragedy and she is learning how to grief while trying to keep up appearances for the sake of her kids, Billy and Mabel.

Quite quickly we see the return of her best friends and co-workers, even her unfiltered gynaecologist makes an appearance (Emma Thompson) to attempt to encourage Bridget to get back in the dating game. It’s moments like this that generate such genuine moments of emotion during the film due to its nostalgia. Old friends reuniting for once last outing. Suddenly, like a lightbulb moment, Bridget’s diary is in hand and the pen back on the page as she gets back into the groove of finding herself. Soon after, Bridget finds herself mixed up with two potential suitors, the first being 29-year-old biochemistry student Roxster (Leo Woodall) who she meets while faking climbing a tree. Hidden in the background is science teacher Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who is alike to Darcy – stubborn yet dashing.

When a beloved film such as Bridget Jones gets sequels, it can raise questions as to how can it beat the previous instalments. Originality in movies in recent years has seen rom-coms take a deep plunge, making us believe that they aren’t made how they used to be. Mad About The Boy will prove everyone wrong. It is a great example on how we can follow a woman through life’s stages and relate to the messiness of it all – the awkward dates, the moments in our job roles that make us want to hide and the sadness of feeling lonely as we get older. More films are equipped these days to represent age gap relationships as a way of navigating the new world order of dating, instead of deeming the idea as ‘cougarism’. And let’s face it, dating isn’t what it used to be. Now we are in an era where an app can cement a connection with a stranger. Mad About The Boy carefully treads through the heart-breaking decisions Bridget needs to take in order to protect herself from further heartbreak, mainly for her children who are still missing their dad.

Woodall and Ejiofor are great leading men in the film adding extra daring, tasty dilemmas for Bridget. But, it is fun to see the return of Hugh Grant as the notorious ladies man, Daniel Cleaver – who is now taking on the role of Uncle duties. As the chapter is closing for Bridget, it’s hard not to acknowledge Zellweger’s role in making the film series successful. Through her performance the character became one that all women can relate to. How cheeriness can be a mechanism to get us through tough situations and how a good power ballad can really get us out of an emotive slump.

Mad About The Boy is a fun, emotionally driven final chapter into the life of Bridget Jones, almost feeling like we are saying goodbye to a good friend we’ve grown up with. Bridget forever.