Directed by: Sharon Maguire
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Emma Thompson
I enjoyed the first two Bridget Jones movies, although I never saw the need for the 'S to be added after Jones in either title. The third installment follows a lot of the same formula as the first two films, in which the lovable Bridget stumbles her way through more unchartered territory. This time, she is pregnant, and in typical Bridget fashion the father's identity is not clear. Seems she had two one night stands within one week of each other, one with her ex Mark Darcy (Firth) and the other with near saintly billionaire American Jack Qwant (Dempsey). Let the shenanigans begin.
Bridget Jones's Baby (yes, I will add the 's because it is the movie's officially spelled title) goes a long way on Zellweger's charm and the likable men in her life who are game for everything she can throw at them. There is a sweetness here which was also present in the preceding films. We know everything will be ok in the end for everyone involved and we're happy for the most part. But more so in Baby do we witness the grinding gears of its contrived plot working overtime. Do we really believe three people as nice and intelligent as Bridget, Mark, and Jack would wait until after the baby's birth to determine paternity? Bridget declines having amniotic fluid drawn after having Jack's hair and fingernails surreptitiously obtained to perform a DNA match.
Bridget Jones's Baby prefers to go the Ebert's Idiot Plot route, thus letting Mark and Jack both attend all of the prenatal classes and doctor visits. Is it really funny to have Mark and Jack pretend to be a same-sex couple with Bridget acting as a surrogate to avoid embarrassment in the prenatal training? No, because I couldn't help but wonder why they would put themselves through these situations that are more at home in a sitcom. I can sort of understand Mark's motives, since he and Bridget have a history from the first two films. Jack had a drunken one-night stand with Bridget and surely doesn't need this headache. He is too nice a guy to have this situation thrust upon him.
As the movie opens, Bridget celebrates her 43rd birthday alone listening to Celine Dion's rendition of All By Myself and then Jump Around by House of Pain. With Bridget, her love life is feast or famine. When she is unattached, she appears to be doomed to a life of spinsterhood. But, when her sex life gets cooking, she has no fewer than two men wanting to win her at any one time. In the first two films, it was Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Here, Dempsey plays the Grant role. In the previous film, Bridget even had a female admirer.
Despite her lapses into slapstick and occasional pratfalls, Bridget remains someone you just want to hug. We even like Mark, who is as reserved and stodgy as Bridget is friendly and outgoing. Smiles and romantic words emit from his lips as if there isn't any more where those came from. Firth's resistance to admitting his feelings creates a charm of its own. Jack is naturally the opposite of Mark. He is a wide-eyed true believer that an algorithm can match someone with his/her soul mate. His fortune was seemingly made from his Match.com inspired website, but we all know he will likely be the odd man out. Dempsey has previously played a likable guy who gets dumped in Sweet Home Alabama (2002), so this isn't new territory for him.
I wish I could say I enjoyed Bridget Jones's Baby as much as the first two films, but I was too aware of the plot mechanics working and the characters' avoidance of the obvious to really allow myself to recommend it. Let's not even mention Bridget's total incompetence in her job as a TV-news show producer. She messes up so bad, so often, the only question is why it took her bitchy boss so long to can her. Probably so we can be granted more scenes in which Bridget shits the bed professionally. This includes a scene in which she gives a presentation to her boss and her superiors about the direction of the show. Things naturally go kablooey and her boss is appalled. Only in the movies does the boss not know exactly what the presentation will be so he/she can be stunned by its ineptitude.
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