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They had me at Bridget Jones.

I, like many, have developed a real affection for Renée Zellweger’s portrayal of this character over the last twenty four years. I’ve not loved all of the movies, I didn’t think the prison subplot from the second one worked particularly well on the page or the screen, but I’d vote for Bridget over Mr. Bean, Alan Partridge, Gavin or Stacey or any number of other beloved modern British icons any day of the week. (Ooh, I can hear some of my friends now, they’re really going to disagree with that.) The woman is just so relatable. She’s clearly meticulously designed that way but they’ve got it right. 

Of course Zellweger herself is not British but she nails our accent, our penchant for swearing and our overall sensibility perfectly. Besides, we’ve had Brits play Abraham Lincoln and Superman, even Mickey Mouse (Cheshire born Jimmy MacDonald regularly subbed for the increasingly busy Walt Disney from 1948, and then exclusively did the voice for ten years after his death in ‘66) so we can certainly give our American cousins this one in return. (The jury is still out on Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes.)

Even with me already being on board though, this film proved a greater treat than I’d anticipated. While at a very different life stage, this is still very much the Bridget we’ve come to recognise but there has been a real evolution of the character with this latest movie, more so I think than in the book it is based on. It’s been nine years since the last film, which was twelve years after the one before so I’m not sure this one counts as a legacy sequel but it has a reminiscent quality that defines a lot of those movies. It is not just dining out on nostalgia and previous successes though.

Interestingly 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby was not an adaptation of one of Helen Fielding’s books because the events of the third published instalment were not considered suitable for the ongoing cinematic adventures of this woman. Now they have used that source material though, those aspects are what have prompted the change. I cannot think of another delayed sequel that has moved its protagonist on with quite the same success. That’s normally the last thing they are trying to do; seriously Maverick, you really should have at least been a two star admiral by now. Bridget Jones has always been funny, it’s always been charming, but this one is also kind of beautiful and that’s new.

It’s no great spoiler to say that the thing that audiences were deemed unprepared for previously is the death of Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy. It caused quite the furore when the book came out so it was an understandable call but having Bridget deal with bereavement and raising her children on her own proves to be very moving. The opening section where this is all laid out is very well managed (it shares some of the power of the beginning of Up) and everything that follows maintains the idea that painful loss can also be a celebration of the love you once had. Bridget’s relationship with her children is also very sweet. The boy of the title is as much her ten year old son, than it is Leo Woodall’s late twenties love interest. 

The ensemble has grown around Bridget over the decades but this film handles this crowd deftly too. Many of her friends and family only get brief moments on screen but they all add value. This woman is as well liked by them as she is by us and it is good to see the people in her life bringing warmth not conflict. Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver, who brought the most strife in the past, returns and is also both the same person and a different person to the one he was before and their relationship has also developed into a better place. Cleaver was absent from the third film having apparently died which is something this movie refers to in one of a couple of slightly meta moments. Mind you, this is the series that cast Colin Firth as Mark Darcy so that’s always been a part of these films.

This is undoubtedly Zellweger’s show though and it is good to see her back in the role that has defined her career. (There was a nice moment when she won the BAFTA for Judy where Grant came on stage to present right after and opened by saying ‘Nice one, Bridge’.) I don’t think she is quite as well loved for this in America, only based on the fact that this film is going straight to streaming there, but with £12.5 million in early takings it has had the biggest opening cinema weekend of any romcom here. A record that was previously held by Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

Clearly I’m not to only one pleased to see her back and to have her story rounded out. To end as I started, with another reference to Jerry Maguire, this film completes her.