Twelve years after she stumbled, puddle-soaked and awkward, into a proposal from her very handsome boyfriend Mark Darcy, Bridget Jones is back. This time she is pregnant and as one would expect from the third crazy comedy written by Helen Fielding, there is only about 50% chance that Mark is the father.
For those who might have to google about the 2001 movie (based on the famous 1996 novel), Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) is the titular character from a popular British movie franchise that chronicles the life of a socially awkward, professionally-struggling, chardonnay-chugging 30-something in London, looking for “the one” and a happy ever after. On a film screen that was partial to only the most unachievable kind of beauty, and stories about the most dreamy kind of romance, Bridget Jones’s Diary arrived as a fresh breath of… cigarette smoke.
Her concerns were real – a big bottom, shapewear, dieting, and doing well at her job while not falling for her boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant). She stumbled through life with a group of friends who were her family, and she found the perfect guy who loves her just the way she is, Mark Darcy (we love you, Colin Firth). And after she found everyone’s perfect man in the first movie, the second installment of the series, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason found her struggling to keep the relationship together. And now, all these years later, she is having a baby.
But before the Bridget-Mark shippers go“aww”, it is important to note that at the beginning of the movie, the two have been separated for five years and now, Bridget, and her gynecologist, the disapproving but amused Emma Thompson are trying to figure out if the father is Mark, or Jack (Patrick Dempsey).
If you got this far into this piece, you probably belong to the decade that gave the world The Spice Girls, a time before mobile phones or Facebook. Because wouldn’t that be the very audience that finds Bridget Jones relevant today – the children of the 1990s, who found a kindred spirit in Jones embarrassing herself and owning it like nobody’s business. She speaks to those of us who log into our social networks to look at a hundred pictures of other people’s babies, everyday.
Bridget Jones was refreshingly real. But that was 15 years ago (when the first movie was released). And be it for the sake of nostalgia and continuity, many will go and watch Bridget Jones’s Baby, which will be released in India on September 23. It is already out in the United Kingdom, and the reviews are very positive.
But does the younger generation care about Bridget Jones or her baby? Jones, who belongs to a pre-internet era, may not be able to strike a similar cord with the young internet-driven, social-media dependent generation. Millennials don’t have to wait around for “the one”. Countless new dating apps are being released everyday. As are tools and programmes that can help the new workforce be more ready, sorted, and prepared for the professional world.
Yes, women still struggle with body image issues around the world. But honestly, aren’t today’s urban women a lot more aware?They find positive reinforcements and encouragement from all corners, making Jones, a woman who was known to be insecure about her looks, her job and relationships, a debatable role model. While the movies usually find her getting everything she wants – be it Mark Darcy, or as the new movie trailers show, a very respectable job as a television news producer – she continues to worry about her singlehood. Agreed, we all want to find love and hope to walk into the sunset (with Darcy, if possible), but that being the primary life goal for a woman is a little out of place in 2016.
The movie is being received well. It has a fair share of laughs, and the delightful main cast, joined by the proven brilliance of Emma Thompson, and Patrick Dempsey.
So, whether your reason of watching be pinned as nostalgia, good reviews, or the return of the ’90s trend, remember that the film features Colin Firth. And that always make a very good case, for anything at all. Because don’t we just love him, just the way he is?
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