The tiny, basket-ball like bump. The glowing, perfect skin. The implausibly-stylish maternity wardrobe.
We all know the hallmarks of your typical movie pregnancy. And how annoying they are! That’s why every woman who has ever been, is, or dreams of being pregnant, will rejoice watching one of film’s most beloved characters, Bridget Jones, as played effortlessly by the equally adorable and hilarious Renée Zellweger, navigate her own journey from positive pregnancy test, to delivery room.
Yes, the often awkward, but always endearing former love-addict and obsessive calorie counter is back in Bridget Jones’s Baby. And I am here as both a mom of three, and lifelong Bridget devotee, to promise you that you. Will. Love. This. Movie.
Let me break down why Bridget Jones’s Baby will soon become one of your all-time fav films. First, let’s consider that the undeniably dreamy Patrick Dempsey plays one of Bridget’s love interests, and potential fathers of her baby. Yes, I said one. If for some inexplicable reason you don’t think Mr. Dempsey is among the hottest men on Earth (why? how?), Colin Firth is on hand to make you swoon. Or, go ahead and drool over both. Either way, when it comes to male eye candy in this movie, you’re covered.
Rest assured Bridget Jones’s Baby also makes a perfect date-night flick. Yes, men can appreciate this movie, too. In fact, I took (okay, more like dragged) my husband to a screening, and he ended up laughing just as hard as I did from the opening credits, to the final scene! I swear.
I was lucky enough to get to tell both the film’s star, and director Sharon Maguire how much me and my hubby LOLed during the film.
“I’m always nervous about the men,” Maguire admitted to BabyCenter, adding that when they end up having a good time, hey, it’s a bonus! But come on, how can you not laugh when Bridget takes both potential fathers to a birth prep course, and the instructor mistakes them for a gay couple, and her for the egg donor, and they all decide to play along?
Beyond the uproarious script, written by the character’s creator Helen Fielding, seeing Bridget, now age 43, on screen again is kind of like running into an old friend… and then hanging out with her in super-intimate situations, like when she’s in bed with men, and getting her first sonogram. In fact, Zellweger says stepping back into Bridget’s charmingly-clumsy shoes was just like reconnecting with an old friend. The Oscar winner also recognizes just how much so many people adore her British counterpart.
“She’s such a beloved character because we recognize ourselves in her struggles, and not just her challenges she faces in her life, but in her struggles toward self-acceptance,” Zellweger explains. “She sort of represents the truth of who we are versus who it is that we aspire to be.” Word!
Okay, even if some of us “geriatric moms'” are super-familiar with Bridget, never fear young millennial mamas! If you aren’t well-acquainted with Bridget and her pursuits of love, happiness, and more flattering underwear, you will still be #obsessed with Bridget Jones’s Baby. As Zellweger explains, “We wanted to be so careful that we made a film that didn’t rely on everybody’s nostalgia for the characters or their affection for the characters but that we were making a film–well, a worthwhile film, a film that could stand on its own despite being part of this franchise.”
And that it does. Again, I defer to my hubby, who isn’t familiar with the earlier Bridget movies. Still laughed. A lot. And even cried. No, that was me actually. Because wrapped up in all those jokes about what pregnancy is really like – the vomiting, the awkward weight-gain, the forgetfulness – is so much heart. Yes, even in a story about a woman who doesn’t know who impregnated her!
It’s all possible thanks to a performance by Zellweger that is so exquisite, you won’t feel ready to say goodbye to Bridget when the credits start rolling. Here’s a little taste of what you’re in store for.
I think it’s pretty clear I found this film to be hilarious, relatable, heart-breaking, and uplifting all at the same time. I can’t say enough that it’s all due to Zellweger, not a mom herself, and who was refreshingly honest about her own life experiences during a press event, following the screening. “From what I’ve experienced with the people that I’m closest to, you evolve when you become a mom,” she said. “You become a bigger version of yourself. You become a more powerful version of yourself, a fully realized version of yourself.”
She added, “I’m a bit of a late bloomer, and so, it’s interesting to kind of be chronologically in that place, but not have–not experience that same transformation at the same time as your friends and the people closest to you. It’s very strange, and it’s–it is a very unique kind of loneliness.”
It’s just that remarkable vulnerability, candor, and ability for self-reflection that will make you feel Zellweger as Bridget. So hard.
Indeed, save for the scene in which Bridget spontaneously begins active labor, from beginning to end, Bridget Jones’s Baby is not a glamorized take on pregnancy. It’s so much more than that: A love letter to women, pregnant, or not, and a reminder that, as Zellweger told BabyCenter, “If we were all privy to one another’s inner dialogue, we would recognize that we are so very much alike.”
It is a privilege to be let in on Bridget’s inner dialogue.
Here’s how to follow Bridget Jones on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #BridgetJonesBaby. See Universal Pictures’ Bridget Jones’s Baby, in theaters today, Friday, September 16, 2016. Get tickets HERE now.
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