‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ is worth your time

Bridget Jones, the lovable, downtrodden heroine from Helen Fielding’s novels, returns for a third outing since her first journey some 12 years ago. Bridget Jones’s Baby is a thoroughly entertaining escapade, an original story in which our dedicated heroine (Renee Zellweger) must face up to motherhood – but the thing is she doesn’t know who the father is – and audiences have to wait until the film’s final moments to find out.

It’s an intriguing scenario this time in which Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver is no longer in the picture and the straitlaced lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) is a married man who has had no contact with Bridget for years. Entering the scene is another wealthy suitor, Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey), an American dating site mogul.

She meets him at a hip music festival when he helps her out of a tricky situation involving a mud pit. This leads to a romantic encounter in his tent. But to add to her complications, Mark Darcy reenters her life after he announces his marriage is over.

The crux of the matter is that Bridget slept with the two different men using faulty rubber protection, which resulted in her pregnancy. Now she hasn’t a clue whether the father is Jack or Mark – a question mark that hangs over this film until the end. Both men believe it’s their baby and the humour constantly flows around the situation.

The team pulls out all the stops in a surprisingly sweet offering with its frantically funny script and a strong supporting cast that includes a hilarious Emma Thompson (given a screenwriting credit with Fielding and Dan Mazer) playing a good-humoured obstetrician and gynaecologist. Great fun!

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