FILMS… Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)

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What Bridget Jones did next. May the film version be with you…

 

Everyone’s favourite British singleton, Bridget Jones is having a baby. But who’s the daddy?

 

Dempsey and Zellweger

Firth and Zellweger

Bridget Jones’s Baby Official Trailer #1 (2016) – Renée Zellweger Movie HD, Movieclips and photos ©  Universal Pictures

 

Bridget Jones is coming back in Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016)!  It’s a mere 12 years since the film sequel that was Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason (2004).  3 years since the book version of events after this time where Fielding killed off Darcy in Mad About the Boy (2013)! So like most of us Bridget fans we’ve moved on to one of three possible endings.

With the film, the book or the press alternative universes are destined for our then heroine. There’s absolutely no continuity between any of the versions. Possibly in a bid to confuse us back in Bridgetland…in the movie Mark Darcy is alive! Daniel Cleaver is not …(as far as we know it) in the film! But Daniel was alive in the book! Darcy wasn’t in the book with more of that gripe HERE.

Don’t ask about the press version as it’s confusing enough as it’s got Daniel Cleaver in it. We now have yet another possible ending for Bridget, should we wish. Read on HERE for that book review, or read on in The Independent for that ending, or if you want Bridget’s ending to be by film…which may or may not lead onto the book or refer to the newspaper story. Or it may lead us to the fourth film of this film series, who knows…

In the trailer, Bridget (Renée Zellweger) is alone and 40 something, and for some reason, we don’t know yet she and Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) are no longer. The trailer starts with a scene of Bridget’s wedding – not too sure if this is in flashback or in a dream – and then it leads on to a few predictable Bridget scenario scenes. These stars many of the recognisable, familiar faces from the first two movies.

It then introduces us to Daniel Cleaver’s (Hugh Grant) substitute, Jack (Patrick Dempsey). He meets and snogs Bridget in the trailer. There’s also Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and Bridget in an uncomfortable situation. The trailer ends with a who’s Bridget’s baby’s father dilemma. This is as she falls pregnant to either Darcy or Jack but in a WTF moment tries to convince them both they are going to be a daddy with two different scenes of both men with her at an ultrasound.

As much as part of me was keen to see this trailer, hoping for the best, I now wish I hadn’t as it’s now etched in my head as much along with other films I hoped to forget. These included the opening scenes of the Star Wars prequels and most of Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985).

Zellweger sounded as chirpy as ever. This was in complete contrast to Colin Firth, who looks both weary and tired. Firth appeared at times uneasy and as if he wished he was anywhere else but in this movie. I fervently hope this is him in the role and acting as Darcy.

I felt uncomfortable watching Patrick Dempsey as Jack as he seemed so out-of-place and he’s not Hugh Grant. He seems as out-of-place as Matt Le Blanc, Joey from Friends (1994-2004) will be as he appears next as the new Top Gear (2002-) TV presenter in the UK. He’s also replacing a well-loved established British character, Jeremy Clarkson.

Boy next door type, Dempsey could never be a replacement for Grant’s raging pervert in Daniel Cleaver. Possibly, I feel uncomfortable knowing that I like everyone who knows Bridget will be rooting for Mark Darcy. I’m also hoping for a hopelessly soppy ending and the happy ending we hoped to get before all the confusion.

The rest of the entire, recognisable British cast from the first two films combined, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Shirley Henderson et al, was a comfort to see and hear in the trailer. But they all looked like they were in automatic acting mode. It was as if they’d been invited to what they thought was a celebration of 15 years of Bridget, but instead been coerced at gunpoint still in their party gear into starring in the wedding scene.

Most of the male cast have beards in the trailer perhaps so they can disassociate themselves from the final film. This is if it fails miserably at the office. The female cast all hid behind their big hats in the wedding scene – apart from Sally Philips who bizarrely almost has a “Hello Mum I’m on the telly” placard – in the hope of the same effect.

I read that there were 3 endings made for this movie with the cast even not knowing the ending. I assume two possible endings include both possible fathers hugging Bridget and their child or their wedding with Bridget. Desperately hope the 3rd ending – chosen by the film’s creators – does not involve throwing a Cleaver at us metaphorically or indeed physically with a cameo from Hugh at the end of the film. But I can’t take anything for granted.

 

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