BRIDGET JONES’S BABY(director: Sharon Maguire; screenwriters: Emma Thompson , Dan Mazer , Helen Fielding; cinematographer: Andrew Dunn; editor: Melanie Ann Oliver; music: Craig Armstrong; cast: Renee Zellweger (Bridget), Patrick Dempsey (Jack Qwant), Sarah Soleman (Miranda), Jim Broadbent (Dad), Shirley Henderson (Jude), Gemma Jones (Mum), Emma Thompson (Dr. Rawlings), Colin Firth (Mark Darcy), Sally Phillips (Shazzer), Ed Sheeran (Himself); Runtime: 122; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward; Universal Pictures; 2016-UK/USA)
“I didn’t find things that funny.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Sharon Maguire (“Incendiary“/”Call Me Crazy: A Five Film“) directed in 2001 the original in the Bridget Jones series and returns to direct the third installment after the 2004 Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason bombed. It’s co-written by Emma Thompson, Dan Mazerand Helen Fielding. The formulaic romantic comedy relies on slapstick comedy to get laughs and for nostalgia about the pursuit of love to make this the ultimate in feel-good pictures. The klutzy Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) is now 43 and still single after the caddish Hugh Grant pursuer is no longer there and she has broken up with the arrogant emotionally vacant Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), the conservative barrister, who has married. But her career as a TV news producer is blossoming, and she is no longer plump. Bridget attends a Glastonbury music festival in a muddy field and sleeps with the smooth talker Jack Owant (Patrick Dempsey), an American matchmaking website mogul who believes love can be found through algorithms. At a church christening Bridget runs into her old flame Mark, and soon learns he’s getting divorced. Ten days after sleeping with Jack she sleeps with Mark, and when she learns she’s pregnant she doesn’t know who is the father. After initially hiding it from the friendly rivals, they learn the truth and agree to let the DNA taken from the baby determine the real father. Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones appear again as Bridget’s supportive parents. Emma Thompson is her wise-cracking acerbic gynecologist. Sarah Soleman is her millennial best girl friend and a TV host on the show Bridget produces. I didn’t find things that funny. It seems to want us to think its vulnerable heroine is funny even when falling in the mud.
REVIEWED ON 9/17/2016 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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