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For more than 20 years on screen, Bridget Jones has been making her way through dating, working, having a baby, and even ending up in jail. Now in the fourth film in the series, Bridget is dealing with a whole new phase of life and a new pair of possible love interests. I'm Linda Holmes, and today we're talking about Bridget Jones' Mad About the Boy on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. ♪
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Joining me today is podcast producer and film and culture critic Kate Young. Welcome back, Kate. Hi, I'm so excited to be here for this one. Yeah, me too. I'm so glad you're here. So the book Bridget Jones Diary was published in 1996 and the film came out in 2001. A spin on Pride and Prejudice, it starred Renee Zellweger as Bridget, Colin Firth as her true love, Mark Darcy, and Hugh Grant as cad Daniel Cleaver.
Now, a couple of decades later, the fourth film is Bridget Jones' Mad About the Boy. And we're about to spoil the premise here, which if you care about this movie, you probably already know. But it is pretty massive, so we're just warning you. Bridget is single again in this film because as the story opens, Mark has been dead for four years. Hmm.
Bridget is a single mom to two kids and she's ready to start dating again. She meets a young guy named Rockster, played by Leo Woodall, who has her feeling sexy again. Ever so slightly, all the women have a wiser view on life. You know, they're more experienced and more emotionally mature.
Me in a nutshell. But she also meets one of her kids' teachers, Mr. Wallaker, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has some of her late husband's awkward formality and perhaps his irresistibility as well. You see, it's not really order that we science people fall in love with, Mrs. Darcy. It's the beauty in things.
Her friends are still on hand to cheer her on. And Daniel, now advancing through middle age himself, is her most reliable babysitter. Bridget Jones, Mad About the Boy, is streaming on Peacock now. Kate, as I understand it, you, like me, you have been a fan and follower of this franchise. How did this work for you? Oh, I loved it. I loved it so much. And I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried.
and I cried and then I watched it again because I wasn't sure that I'd completely metabolized the plot. I feel like after all this time, it's exactly the kind of story that I want to be telling about Bridget. It's exactly the place that I want to find her after all of these years. It felt like going home and reuniting with a bunch of friends you haven't seen in a really long time. Like, I have no complaints. I think you have hit on the exact same
question about this movie, which is to me less than
Did they execute it well? Because I think they executed it really well. And the question is really, is this what you want? Because it was dragged out for a couple of sequels, it took a long time for Bridget and Mark to settle into any kind of sort of peaceful married life. I did not want him to be killed by a landmine while off doing charity work. And it's not because I think it's wrong. It's just because for me...
I go to these movies for a certain kind of escape, and I did find this very sad. Again, I think it's good at being a sad movie, but man, it's a sad movie. Please forgive me for being upset about anything which isn't about not having you. ♪
Please help me find a way to do this without feeling like I'm ruining the most important part of my life. Yes, of course, it has the like Bridget will eventually persevere. And, you know, this was written, as I understand it, partly reflecting the fact that Helen Fielding's own husband had died. And so there's nothing wrong with this story. There's nothing wrong with telling a story about a woman who is at this point in life and has had these things happen to her.
I maybe would have rather seen it with a different character because to me, having Bridget Jones be a gigantic bummer was just a lot for me to take right now. I mean, it definitely is an incredibly sad movie. I think this is really a movie about grief masquerading as a rom-com. But to me, what made it so special is everything that came before. I think...
On my second watch, one of the things that occurred to me is that the reason I was so emotional about, you know, that there's a little intersection where they kind of catch us up on everything that's happening with Mug. The reason I was so emotional to me is because in these first three movies...
We see them getting together and getting together and getting together, but we never actually get to see them happy together. You know, there's a whole long sequence in Bridget Jones's Baby where they talk about, I guess it was like the decade that they were engaged and never got married and then they broke up. And so when Colin Firth shows up and he's all gray-haired and they have these two lovely children and they've obviously had a good life and we weren't there for any of it, I could not stop crying. I mean, I think that's the whole question, right? The whole question is...
When you write romance, and I think the earlier books certainly were received as and marketed as romance, right? The happy ending is part of the promise of the genre. And...
So obviously those books have that. There's something weird to me about going back and being like, oh, but, you know, they didn't get to enjoy this all for all that long because he died. So anyway, like, and he would have died when her younger child, her daughter would have been quite small. So to me, it just has a heaviness that it's not that it's not what I look for from a movie, but I don't know if it's what I look for from
For this movie, like when you say like I watched it and I cried and cried and cried and cried and cried like I get it right. But I don't know whether when I fire up a Bridget Jones movie, am I like I just want to sob my eyes out and feel so incredibly sad and think about mortality and all that stuff. Fair enough. At the same time with all of that said.
I think she's so good in this. Yeah. And I'm so glad to see her so good in it. Even like I made a joke about Rockster being named Rockster, but he does a good job. He's an appealing kid. I think they do a good job of kind of balancing that he's not necessarily the person she's going to end up with.
But it is one that still is meaningful to her and is sort of part of her process. Yeah, meaningful is exactly the word that I would have used. I think it would have been very easy to play that for laughs. You know, a lot of Bridget's romantic foibles have always been the awkwardness and how silly they are and the mistakes she makes. But they take it seriously to have him as a romantic partner. I mean, they definitely gawk at him and all of her friends make fun of her, but...
He approaches her with sincerity. They have a really good kiss. Is it more of a kissy? Oh, the generation who ask. I think that would be acceptable. That first sex scene that they have, there's still the awkwardness, but it's that kind of sweet romantic awkwardness when you're with someone who you really, really like and not the kind of hijinks awkwardness of like, you know, this comedy, a straight comedy. I really liked that they made that a relationship
a relationship that mattered. He met her kids, he played cricket with them, they knew him, they loved him. He was an important part of her life and not just some kid she met on Tinder. Right, agreed. I don't really come to Bridget for romance. I come to Bridget for Bridget. I get that. The fact that her foibles happen to be around romance are just kind of part of the story that she happens to be telling with her life. But to me, part of what made this work is that
Yeah.
You're making a really good argument. I think they did a very good job of making this movie this way. It really comes down to, is this what you want? Because when I get into it, I think Leo Woodall's good. I think Chiwetel Ejiofor is a very good romantic lead as a man in middle age. I think he should have all of the roles as a charming romantic man in middle age because I think he's very sexy. You asked me, where's the wonder and the magic? That's a good question.
I think it's here. I do want to ask you, how did you feel about Hugh Grant skipped the last movie, the baby movie, and so she was caught between Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey. Now Hugh Grant came back for this movie, and Daniel is sort of her friend and her kid's favorite babysitter. How did you feel about his presence in this? I loved that he was back. In the same way that I was excited to see where all of these characters were, I think seeing where Daniel was was so...
interesting because he is exactly the same character that you know he's very identifiably Daniel Cleaver and I think that what's interesting now is that in the same way that Bridget is reckoning with like this new phase of her life he's coming to understand that like okay I've been Daniel Cleaver but I forgot to do anything else and
And what does my life look like now? He's getting to the this is not cute anymore phase of his life. Exactly. And it's taken him a long, long time. They asked me to put down my next of kin. And the only person I could think of who might remotely care was you.
It's very sweet. Yeah, but not deliberately. The point is, Bridget, how have I arrived at this point in my life with no kin? But I also found it incredibly charming that he's also the person that Bridget can most rely on, that he's someone that her children love, that he's someone who's in her life. And I just, I was so charmed by it. Uncle Daniel! Miniature Darcy, what's the news? Where are the ladies with the big... Hair? Hair?
They couldn't make it, sadly. They're washing their hair. All three? Yeah, well, they wash each other's, you see. I think their friendship story was probably what...
what moved me the most in a positive way that wasn't just about grief and sadness. I think it really resonated for me with the fact that like, cause obviously Daniel has done a lot of very sketchy things, but I think like I was thinking about the fact that, you know, as I get older, I think I overlook a lot less and forgive a lot more. In other words, I don't miss things when people are doing things that stink and
But I'm much more likely to say, yes, this is true of this person. This is this person's limitations. I hope that they will continue to grow. But you understand how much it would mean to her in her current situation if he has been present for her, if he has shown up for her during this time that she's been mourning. And he's been...
building a relationship with her kids and he's been a supportive figure in the life of her kids and he's been a friend to her and they've managed to do that without him trying to go to bed with her or whatever. I mean, there's no guarantee of that, let's be clear. There's no guarantee of that, no. But you can understand how
Despite their history, they've built this relationship that really feels hard won to me. I still don't know what she was so pissed off about. You shacked her sister. Once. Massive overreaction. God.
I love you, Daniel. I really did appreciate that. And I was very glad he was in this. And they still have, I think, just chef's kiss chemistry. Like one of the challenges of the first movie is that, of course, you love Colin Firth. She has wonderful chemistry with him as well. But there are times when it's like, oh, I don't know, man. Like, I understand why she enjoyed Daniel, you know? Yeah.
Which, speaking of which, one of the things I really did like is the way that they make a lot of throwbacks to some of the fashion choices from the earlier films. The pajamas that she's wearing in the early films are the same ones that she's wearing when she's by herself in one of the earlier ones. The one that did make me cry is her son is in the same Christmas sweatshirt that Mark was in in one of the earliest films. Like, there are a lot of little callbacks like that that are, like, they're specifically for people like me who have grown up with Bridget and loved her and obsessed over her.
And I really loved that this film kind of recognizes what it is that I love about this franchise, really, which is that we're following this woman along her journey. Like, I really don't come to this for romance. That's just like a perk. I'm here because she is a woman that I identify with, someone whose experiences I understand well.
And I get to pop in on her life every now and again and see where she's at and figure out what my life looks like in relation to that. Yeah. In the same way that the last film was about, oh, I'm an older woman and I may never have a baby except if I don't have this baby.
Now it's, I'm an older woman and I have two small children and I have to, you know, it's like she just, it's just another thing that's happening in her life that she has to navigate. And we get to see what it looks like when she figures out how to do that. And I loved that, you know, all these people that we have come to know and love as part of her life are also there. I think it was just seeing her friends again, her father who's unfortunately passed, like,
There's this whole universe of people who are there to support her. And, you know, I miss all of them equally and really getting to kind of embrace them again felt wonderful. You got to wallow in it, Bridge. Wallow. Grieve. G-R-E-I-V-E.
It's I-E, it's not E-I. No, it's I before E except after C. Yes, exactly. Yeah, I do really like the fact that her friends have kind of stuck around. And when you see her friends in this movie, I think they believably interact with her the same and yet different. And everything you're saying about what you come to Bridget for and what this movie does well, it all makes perfect sense to me. And I...
And I think it is a really effective film about the processing of grief for her, for her kids, the...
The sort of moment late in the film where they're kind of marking his birthday is, I think, really lovely. And it felt effective to me. So I'm sort of pushing against the different parts of me that, on the one hand, just want you to follow your creative vision and do a good job of executing it, which I think they definitely did. And also, like, don't kill Mark Darcy, which is.
which is something I feel deeply. When I read this book initially, because this is the original third book, not the fourth, I was also kind of bummed that they killed Darcy because like, they just got together. Like, why is he dead now? That's the other thing is you've had more time with it than I have. Yeah. And then, so then when Bridget Jones's baby came out, I was really pleased. I was confused, but I was really pleased because it meant we got another fun adventure with him again. Yeah.
So to me, I've had my fill, kind of, in the sense that I am satisfied that they had their love story. We did not get to see as much of it as I would have necessarily liked, but I firmly believe that he was the love of her life and that they had that opportunity to experience that together. I am okay with moving into this next stage of her life with her. You know...
I'm pretty much fully persuaded that I did really like it. And it is a bummer, but it's a good bummer. We want to know what you think about Bridget Jones, mad about the boy. Find us at facebook.com slash PCHH and on letterboxd at letterboxd.com slash NPR pop culture. We will have a link in our episode description. That
That brings us to the end of our show. Kate Young, thank you so much for being here. This was very enlightening for me. I appreciate it. Thank you. I'm always happy to talk about Bridget Jones. And one more thing before we go. In the run-up to the Oscars, we are watching all 10 Best Picture nominees, of course, and you're invited to watch along with us.
Sign up for the special NPR Movie Club newsletter at npr.org slash movie club. You'll hear our thoughts about each Best Picture nominee. Plus, we'll share some links to NPR's other coverage of the films you might have missed. Again, you can sign up at npr.org slash movie club. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and edited by Mike Katzeff. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In provides our theme music.
Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all next time.
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