Bridget Jones's Baby (15.)
Directed by Sharon Maguire.
Starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Sarah Solemani, Jim Broadbent and Emma Thompson. 123 mins
Renee Zellwegger may no longer bear much resemblance to Renee Zellwegger but she still, more or less, looks and sounds like Bridget Jones. More importantly, after the misfiring second film, this third instalment looks and sounds just about as good as the first one, which is the really very good indeed.
It is a romcom that is funny in the way that an actual proper comedy is. Both Richard Curtis and Andrew Davies have dropped out of the task of assisting Helen Fielding with the script, to be replaced by Emma Thompson and Dan Mazer (the director of Dirty Grandpa) and they've come through with plenty of cracking lines.
The disappointment of this new film is revealed early – they have killed off Hugh Grant. His entrance in the first film, emerging in slow motion from out of a lift, his eyes moving like a predator from side to side, was one of the great movie entrances, the romcom equivalent of Harry Lime appearing in that Viennese doorway. His absence means that they have to find someone new for Colin Firth's Mark Darcy to battle with for Bridget affections, after she becomes pregnant following a pair of one night stands. The American Patrick Dempsey is put in the chump role – his character is sensitive, thoughtful and an internet billionaire and thus no match for the stuck up, emotionally frigid, Darcy. In this film Firth seems more aloof and regal than he was in The King's Speech. These films are aimed at the soppy lady market, but as a manly man I have to confess I have a huge emotional investment in Colin Firth getting his happy ending.
Finally, here are your nit picks. It is way too long, there is a definite dip in the quantity and quality of laughs after the first hour and a lot of the returning supporting cast only get a few minutes of screen time. They all do though get do something that brings out there qualities. The plot is ludicrously contrived and it all takes place in a fantasy London where inept, clueless, but well connected people can skip happily through a well paid media career: a fantasy London that is just like the real one then.
Directed by Sharon Maguire.
Starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Sarah Solemani, Jim Broadbent and Emma Thompson. 123 mins
Renee Zellwegger may no longer bear much resemblance to Renee Zellwegger but she still, more or less, looks and sounds like Bridget Jones. More importantly, after the misfiring second film, this third instalment looks and sounds just about as good as the first one, which is the really very good indeed.
It is a romcom that is funny in the way that an actual proper comedy is. Both Richard Curtis and Andrew Davies have dropped out of the task of assisting Helen Fielding with the script, to be replaced by Emma Thompson and Dan Mazer (the director of Dirty Grandpa) and they've come through with plenty of cracking lines.
The disappointment of this new film is revealed early – they have killed off Hugh Grant. His entrance in the first film, emerging in slow motion from out of a lift, his eyes moving like a predator from side to side, was one of the great movie entrances, the romcom equivalent of Harry Lime appearing in that Viennese doorway. His absence means that they have to find someone new for Colin Firth's Mark Darcy to battle with for Bridget affections, after she becomes pregnant following a pair of one night stands. The American Patrick Dempsey is put in the chump role – his character is sensitive, thoughtful and an internet billionaire and thus no match for the stuck up, emotionally frigid, Darcy. In this film Firth seems more aloof and regal than he was in The King's Speech. These films are aimed at the soppy lady market, but as a manly man I have to confess I have a huge emotional investment in Colin Firth getting his happy ending.
Finally, here are your nit picks. It is way too long, there is a definite dip in the quantity and quality of laughs after the first hour and a lot of the returning supporting cast only get a few minutes of screen time. They all do though get do something that brings out there qualities. The plot is ludicrously contrived and it all takes place in a fantasy London where inept, clueless, but well connected people can skip happily through a well paid media career: a fantasy London that is just like the real one then.
