Bridget Jones is back, but her knickers are not

Carolina Vargas | Vox Magazine – September 17, 2016

Our favorite British single girl is back! After twelve years since the last movie, Bridget Jones's Baby unexpectedly defies the usual letdown that comes from revivals or spin offs. The rom-com brings back some of the major characters from the first two Bridget Jones movies, including the dreamy Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth), from whom Bridget (Renée Zellweger) can’t seem to escape. Having finally reached her goal weight and gained confidence as a top news producer, Bridget seems to be on top of the world. She's coping well with being single again in her 40s after breaking up with Darcy. However, two big absences are noticeable in the film: Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) the notorious womanizer we love to hate, and those granny panties Bridget Jones is known for! Skinny or not, a woman knows how a good pair of Spanx can make all the difference.

In the new movie, Bridget’s latest resolutions are once again to get her life together – but this time with the timeline of nine months. Our favorite heroine struggles to figure out the identity of her unborn baby's father – either Darcy or Jack (Patrick Dempsey) – while trying not to get fired and dealing with her judgmental mother. This successful 40-something is now forced to deal with bearded hipsters, music festivals and the challenge of figuring out who her baby's father is (while also hiding it from each guy).

Bridget Jones’s Baby had an overall great soundtrack with musical appearances from Ed Sheeran, whom Bridget has apparently never heard of. And of course it would not be a Bridget Jones movie if it didn’t include the iconic “All By Myself” sing-a-long. The nostalgic factor for this movie certainly got many people into the theater, but this film actually delivers on the zany antics and relatable guy troubles, while grasping what it is like for a middle-aged woman to feel she is slowly becoming irrelevant in a media world overtaken by millennials and hipsters.

This film was surprisingly not a letdown, but rather a pleasing mixture of comedy and nostalgia. Although Bridget’s aging and thin appearance was initially jarring, her self-doubting ways and the lovable antics that always seem to get her in trouble won me back. Her bumpy road to motherhood and her happily ever after are well worth the time spent at the movie theater.

Vox Rating: VVVV