Renee Zellweger stars as Bridget Jones in the fourth and final film (Photo: Universal)
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is the 4th and final instalment of the beloved film series.
The film follows Bridget as she adjusts to life as a single parent after her husband dies. Bridget ventures into the world of modern dating, including online dating.
Despite stashing away her signature control pants from the earlier films, Bridget is encouraged to wear a slip dress that conceals her “undesirable” bits, but showcases the acceptable ones.
“You need to rebrand yourself”, a female colleague tells her. Bridget returns to her diary and tells herself it is “time to live”. Living, it turns out, involves searching for another man.
The film handles grief in a way that feels gentle, honest and authentic.
Yet, I couldn’t ignore the connotations that Bridget’s worth is still tied to romantic partnership. The world tells her she is unable to move on in her grief unless she finds a relationship.
Bridget encourages her children to process their grief and talk about their feelings. But it takes only a few words from the new male lead, Mr. Walliker, for her son Billy to seemingly overcome his grief.
Walliker effortlessly steps into the father role, and Bridget again becomes the romantic partner, as if her family’s healing depends on a man.
The film explores the complexities of single parenting. But it doesn’t acknowledge the underlying privilege.
Bridget lives in a large house with substantial wealth and an expensive nanny, far from the reality for most single parents. The film paints her return to work as a hobby, which would instead be a lifeline, not a choice, for anyone less privileged.
Daniel Cleaver experiences an unexpected redemption arc, finding himself a positive role in the lives of Bridget’s children. We are reminded that it does take a village to raise a child.
It’s a welcome break from the familiar formula and refreshing to see Bridget and Daniel enjoying friendship.
However, Daniel continues his constant objectification of every woman he encounters. Bridget also finds herself at the receiving end of Daniel’s misogyny, but it’s once again played off as charming instead of problematic.
I was genuinely warmed by the reunion with Bridget’s group of friends. They celebrate one another’s successes, unlike the group Bridget reluctantly socialises with earlier in the film.
At first glance, this installation appears to be very different to its predecessors. Renee Zellweger recently addressed the use of a homophobic slur in the first film, and celebrated how the 4th film did a much better job of exploring similar themes.
But with the same tired tropes of romantic pursuit and the quest for personal worth, it seems that not a lot has changed.
Of course, the last of the books was published in 2016. But that isn’t so long ago, and I couldn’t help but feel that opportunities were missed to acknowledge themes more relevant than the size of her knickers.
- Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is in cinemas now
Powerful portrayal of ‘Women, Life, Freedom’
The Seed of the Sacred Fig was written, co-produced and directed by Mohammad Rasoul. Much of it was filmed in secret in Iran before he fled into exile.
The film is follows the “Women Life Freedom” movement triggered by the murder of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, arrested in 2022 for wearing the hijab incorrectly.
The first part of the film shows the resistance led by women and the responding state brutality. The story is told through a man recently appointed as an investigator and his family.
The investigator’s wife attends to all his needs, soothing his concerns about signing death warrants, hoping her husband’s new post will lead to a bigger flat.
Their teenage daughters symbolise those who rose up after Amini’s murder.
They don’t believe state propaganda and challenge their father’d views though they’re prevented from participating in the demonstrations.
The family are caught between the hammer of the regime and the retribution sought by those who experience injustice from the state. That very same contradiction is reproduced in the heart of the family.
The tension comes to a head when a gun goes missing inside the house, threatening to bring disgrace and disqualification from the father’s post.
His search for the gun leads to ever more heavy handed treatment of his wife and daughters.
Thus far, the film presents a powerful picture of the nature of state repression, misogyny and violence of the Iranian regime.
Unfortunately, the denouement is much weaker and too long drawn out, with the father being the weakest of the main characters in the film.
Nevertheless, this is a powerful reminder of the conditions that gave rise to the “Women, Life, Freedom movement”—and how that movement will start again.
Sheila McGregor
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig is on at Picture House cinemas
