Time: 123 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Offensive language and sexual references
Cast:
Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones
Colin Firth as Mark Darcy
Patrick Dempsey as Jack Qwant
Jim Broadbent as Colin Jones
Gemma Jones as Pamela Jones
Emma Thompson as Dr. Rawlings
Director: Sharon Maguire

While I liked Bridget Jones’s Diary, the direct sequel The Edge of Reason was not nearly as good. So it’s pretty hard to be excited for a third movie, but 12 years later it actually turned out pretty good.

Bridget Jones’s Baby is a notable improvement over the last Bridget Jones movie, and is closer to being on the level of the original. Once again, it’s an enjoyable, charming, funny and quirky romantic comedy. Some jokes land, others don’t (there’s a surprising amount of slapstick here), most of them did work for me though. With it being a 2016 movie, the writing and comedy has been brought up to date instead of trying to stick with the early 2000s writing in the first couple of movies. That said, the trade off is that it really feels like its in the 2010s, from Ed Sheeran appearances to the use of Gangnam Style, so it’s dated in a different way.

Renee Zellweger as usual is charming, funny, endearing and a delight as Bridget Jones. While I feel like Colin Firth was lacking as Mark Darcy in The Edge of Reason, I think he’s considerably better here. An interesting aspect is that Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver isn’t in this movie, while the book has both him and Darcy, Grant felt that the movie shouldn’t have his character and as a result we get a different character in the mix played by Patrick Dempsey. He definitely gives a very different energy and character compared to Grant, but it felt appropriate. Dempsey was good, and the three leads had great dynamics with each other. Emma Thompson is also really funny in her scenes.

Bridget Jones’s Baby is a charming and witty romantic comedy, and was a bit closer to being at the level of the original compared to its predecessor.