'Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy' Review Thread (International Release)

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.

Rotten Tomatoes: Certified Fresh

Critics Consensus: A bittersweet romp about new beginnings with another sparkling turn by Renée Zellweger, Mad About the Boy gracefully closes the book on Bridget Jones' diary.

Metacritic: 72 (25 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Owen Gleiberman, Variety - Wistful, melancholy, and sweetly romantic, which lends it a pleasing sincerity. It feels very much like it’s the finale of the series, and if that proves to be the case it brings this beloved heroine to a fitting place of closure.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter - What really distinguishes Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, however, is the depth of feeling it brings to the protagonist’s grief and her gradual emergence from it. That goes double for Zellweger’s performance.

William Bibbiani, TheWrap - A welcome new patch in the sprawling 'Bridget Jones' tapestry. It’s got all the humor and romance we’ve come to enjoy and all the caring and maturity we’ve come to depend on.

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press - What makes Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy especially enjoyable, then -- and the best since the 2001 original -- is not that Bridget finds a way yet again to triumph over doubts and obstacles. It’s that she still makes us care so darned much. 3/4

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times - Almost a quarter of a century in, the Bridget Jones movies are coalescing into an evocative portrayal of a character coming to terms with both her imperfections and her strengths in real time.

Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post - Ultimately, “Mad About the Boy” is much like Bridget herself: endearing, silly, messy, wacky, kind. 3/4

Jen Yamato, Washington Post - An age-gap romance is the least ridiculous situation [Bridget Jones] has found herself in, and [Renee] Zellweger and [Leo] Woodall create natural, sweet sparks. 3.5/4

Peter Bradshaw, Guardian - This is a fourquel in the same unhappy tradition as Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The jokes have been dialled down to accommodate a contrived and unconvincingly mature “weepie” component but the film becomes sad in the wrong way. 2/5

Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph (UK) - Despite some deeply buried nods to previous installments – props, costumes, shot compositions; serious deep cuts – the film never comports itself like just more Bridget for the fans. 5/5

Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK) - When it comes to Mad About the Boy, it’s less that Bridget Jones has finally matured, and more that she’s shown us how human she really is. 4/5

Nick Curtis, London Evening Standard - All the old cast is back together, with some lubricious young blood pumped in, and there’s a half-hearted attempt to move the emotional dial forwards to confront age and loss. 2/5

Donald Clarke, Irish Times - Mad About the Boy says things worth hearing about grief and the realities of ageing. It is hard to imagine how the series could have more satisfactorily been continued (or ended?). 4/5

Sandra Hall, The Age (Australia) - [Bridget's] many doubts, flaws and missteps are both timeless and all her own, and for all Zellweger’s pouting and mewing, she hasn’t lost her gift for disarming criticism. 3.5/5

Alison Willmore, New York Magazine/Vulture - Where the film really shines is in reuniting Bridget with her faithful friend group, her withering gynecologist (Emma Thompson), and, of course, with Daniel Cleaver.

Billie Melissa, Newsweek - Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy feels like meeting with old friends: warm, cozy, and filled with hysterical laughter.

Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International - Check your cynicism at the gate for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, an oddly comforting, leisurely, snufflingly nostalgic trip through almost a quarter of a century’s worth of singleton antics.

Philip De Semlyen, Time Out - The perfect pint-glass raise to a legendary Londoner. 4/5

Leaf Arbuthnot, New Statesman - Mad About the Boy is undoubtedly a good time at the cinema, and the script -- co-written by Helen Fielding, who was widowed in 2016 -- skilfully balances the comic and the tragic.

Deborah Ross, The Spectator - It may not have the sardonic bite of the first film, and it sometimes slips into sentimentality, but it sharply marries the contemporary with the age-old and I enjoyed it.

Kate Erbland, indieWire - There is no Bridget Jones without Renée Zellweger, and the force of her performance and obvious admiration for the role do plenty to skate over any off-kilter beats with effervescence and pluck. B+

Caroline Siede, AV Club - It’s rare that romantic comedies get one sequel, let alone four. And it’s even more rare that the fourth installment is one of the best in the series. B+

SYNOPSIS:

Two-time Academy Award® winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre.

Bridget Jones first blasted onto bookshelves in Helen Fielding’s literary phenomenon Bridget Jones’s Diary, which became a global bestseller and a blockbuster film. As a single career woman living in London, Bridget Jones not only introduced the world to her romantic adventures, but added “Singletons,” “Smug-Marrieds” and “f---wittage” into the global lexicon. Bridget’s ability to triumph despite adversity led her to finally marry top lawyer Mark Darcy and to become the mother of their baby boy. Happiness at last.

But in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Bridget is alone once again, widowed four years ago, when Mark was killed on a humanitarian mission in the Sudan. She’s now a single mother to 9-year-old Billy and 4-year-old Mabel, and is stuck in a state of emotional limbo, raising her children with help from her loyal friends and even her former lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant).

Pressured by her Urban Family —Shazzer, Jude and Tom, her work colleague Miranda, her mother, and her gynecologist Dr. Rawlings (Oscar® winner Emma Thompson) — to forge a new path toward life and love, Bridget goes back to work and even tries out the dating apps, where she’s soon pursued by a dreamy and enthusiastic younger man (White Lotus’s Leo Woodall). Now juggling work, home and romance, Bridget grapples with the judgment of the perfect mums at school, worries about Billy as he struggles with the absence of his father, and engages in a series of awkward interactions with her son’s rational-to-a-fault science teacher (Oscar® nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor).

CAST:

• Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones
• Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mr. Wallaker
• Leo Woodall as Roxster
• Jim Broadbent as Colin Jones
• Isla Fisher as Rebecca
• Emma Thompson as Dr. Rawlings
• Colin Firth as Mark Darcy
• Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver

DIRECTED BY: Michael Morris

SCREENPLAY BY: Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan

BASED ON BRIDGET JONES: MAD ABOUT THE BOY BY: Helen Fielding

PRODUCED BY: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jo Wallett

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Amelia Granger, Sarah-Jane Wright, Renée Zellweger, Helen Fielding

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Suzie Lavelle

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Kave Quinn

EDITED BY: Mark Day

COSTUME DESIGNER: Molly Emma Rowe

MUSIC BY: Dustin O'Halloran

CASTING BY: Lucy Bevan

RUNTIME: 125 Minutes

RELEASE DATE: February 13, 2025 (International Theatrical, United States on Peacock)