Bridget Jones “Mad about the Boy” ****SPOILERS*****

[DoingthefullGareth]

Ding fucking Dong!

What a lovely, if emotional watch.

Favourite bits:

Bridget getting her diary and pen out again and the film “truly” starting.

“Modern Love” dance with the kids.

Flash backs to Mark.

Cleaver remembering he has an estranged son and making contact.

🤣🤣 Tesco meal deal faux pas

🤣🤣🤣 “I had the most amazing sex” in front of a studio audience

Daniel and Bridget’s relationship now.

🥲🥲🥲 Bridget’s dad in his last days.

🥲🥲 Bridget realising that the relationship with Roxter cannot continue

🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲 “I’ll do anything”

Wasn’t expecting much after the last two but loved it. As others have said, it’s been so long that we’ve all grown up with Bridget. It’s two decades and more since the first film. A lot of life has happened since then! I’m not a crier but the scene with her dad had me, as did the balloon release, as did the I’d Do Anything rendition. Emma Thompson made it, just so quintessentially British. London looked great, Roxster was lovely (for the most part), HG was fab and the parallels and nods to previous films etc. were all there for the taking. It also got a great write up in The Guardian yesterday from a journalist who had herself been widowed. Def recommend!

I seen it last night and loved it. Loved how up to date jr was. Loved that Daniel was in it hehe. It was a nice film to end the Bridget series xx

Oh god I'm going so against the grain here, there were a few LOL moments, but overally just so depressing. I did well up over the Mark stuff, but I don't watch BJ for the deep and meaningfuls. I loved the book and I just felt this didn't do it any justice, I'd have liked to have seen more of the neighbour and less of Cleaver, who should be dead per the books anyway. So sad as I bloody love BJ. I did love seeing the old friends back, Shazza has aged magnificently. And Emma Thompson is always perfection. Rickman did her so wrong 😡

Edited to add: Roxster absolutely sucked, all the onscreen charisma of a wet fish. They did that role so dirty.

I enjoyed the bits without Roxster. I thought the whole age gap thing wasn’t handled well - not clear whether she ever told him the actual age gap or whether he went on assuming she was 35 - and I didn’t like the scene where everyone else at the party was in their 50s and basically perving on a 29 year old.

@BaronessMachiavelli Daniel isn’t dead in the book he babysits the kids.

I enjoyed it but there was a bit too much deviation from the book. Scott needed more development rather like he had kids and stuff in the book.

i wanted to see them in the chaos of their house where they all have nits!

It also got a great write up in The Guardian yesterday from a journalist who had herself been widowed

Don't know why they didn't just get her to review it, instead of Peter bloody Bradshaw who never likes any film for a female audience. I thought the film worked really well as a finale for Bridget. Life goes on and all. Billy in his dad's jumper! 😭

Oh my, how have I got that so wrong? I must have gotten confused when they "killed him off" in the last one! It's been a few years since I read them all to be fair.

I did feel slightly morbid as a soon to be 54 year old and a fan of Sex and the City then And Just Like That and having to watch death of characters you have grown up as an adult with. Now Mark Darcy too! Eek!

Get so cross at white male middle aged guardian review men slagging off films that women enjoy. This is a classic example. Remember reading a bad review of the remake
of Annie which our pre teen girls loved. It’s not aimed at you you prat. Thankfully the guardian have got a proper reviewer to review that film now.

He actually said ‘Do you want to go for a drink’ and nobody says that so a bit silly really.

I thought this. I still laughed a lot, but thought "do you want to go and grab a drink" or similar would have worked better in the context.

Can anyone explain the Daniel Cleaver death thing. I have only read the original book so don’t know if it’s true to the story or not.

A 29 year old IS an adult.

Many women myself included have been known to drool over a much younger man.

That doesn't mean they are "perving"

I hated that pool bit. Reducing all these amazing women with careers and goals to dribbling over some guy with his shirt off. Embarrassing portrayal of women.

Literally me's biggest problem with the "pool" bit was that it didn't look big enough for that dive, that length of swimming and such big strokes.🙄 It looked more like a garden-feature style pond.

I loved it and cried a lot too.

I grew up with Bridget, hell, I WAS Bridget:

Self help books, tick
Unsuitable boyfriends, tick
Drank and smoked too much, tick
Needed to lose weight, tick
Brilliant friends who said come the fuck on, tick

It was funny and moving and lovely. I don't think Daniel Cleaver would have changed so fair enough on the dirty bitch drinks and name in the phone and not seeing his son. He did acknowledge that he was too old now for that schtick and asked Bridge "am I a bit tragic?"

I didn't fancy the Roxster at all except when he rescued the children from the tree. DH noticed and said "yeah yeah, we can all rescued kids from trees if needed you know" 😂

I thought it was all marvellous apart from the scene in the snow with the teacher. I know it was meant to be a nod to the first film but it felt so badly worded and unnecessary with zero chemistry between them.

I loved so much of it though, I thought what they did with the Daniel Cleaver character was so clever, showing how a man like that could easily end up a caricature of himself alone and aging. Emma Thomson was absolutely brilliant, and I think it was right not to focus too much on Bridget's DM or DAunt - because then it would add another generation to proceedings and make it too lumbering.

I saw it last night. Found it a bit meh.

The meal deal joke has been doing the rounds on fb for at least a year now and I hated that they released balloons to remember Mark on his birthday. They could have posted letters instead.

I saw it yesterday and loved it , her put on posh accent was a bit stupid though.

Apparently the meal deal joke has been around since 2020!

Helen Fielding did not originally write Bridget Jones Baby as a book. She actually wrote a year of newspaper columns with a different ending.
The interesting thing was that it was Daniel versus Darcy again (in terms of whose baby it was) and Helen actually wanted Bridget to end up with Daniel. It is revealed in the newspaper columns that it was Daniel's baby.
When they started scripting BJB they had to bring in Jack to replace Hugh Grant as he turned it down. They did the fake death so he could be brought back and to explain his absence in the third film.

But just to add, there was BJB book published in 2016 by Helen Fielding. That has the Daniel versus Mark rivalry/paternity storyline but veers from the newspaper columns she wrote, having Mark as the father and proposing at the end with Daniel being relieved/made godfather.

I was tempted to go see it again on an extended lunch break today 😊

What was the bit with the Easter eggs? I missed that

@sammylady37 in case you really don't know:

www.bbfc.co.uk/about-us/articles/the-bbfcs-all-time-favourite-easter-eggs-in-films