Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is finally out today, on Galentine’s Day, nine years after the last film landed in cinemas.
Based on the original novel by Helen Fielding, it tells the story of a 50-something Bridget dealing with grief after the loss of her husband, Mark Darcy, while bringing up her two young children. Hugh Grant and Colin Firth return, as does Renée Zellweger as Bridget, but this time she’s armed with two new men, played by One Day’s Leo Woodhall and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Fans will be delighted to know there’s plenty of laughs amongst the sadness. But speaking to City AM, the film’s director Michael Morris revealed one classically Bridget scene ended up on the cutting room floor.
It’s a trope of the franchise that Bridget tends to get drunk, and in Mad About The Boy she is seen swigging from a bottle of wine, but another key scene of Bridget letting her hair down didn’t make it to the big screen.
“There was a scene with Leila [Farzad] who plays Nicolette, and between Nicolette and Bridget you learn that Nicolette’s husband had been having an affair,” Morris explained to City AM. “They both get drunk together and commiserate, and it was really fun.
“As I refined the final shape of the film that whole sequence had to go because of various reasons. That one hurt.”
In our four-star review, City AM said Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy “perfectly chimes with the rise of hun culture” popular today.
“Mad About The Boy tackles adult themes worth investing in without scrimping on fun and frivolity,” the review said. “Abi Morgan, original Bridget author Helen Fielding and Dan Mazer have collaborated on a script that has some incredibly evocative images about grief and the ways we cope.”
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is in cinemas from today and streaming on Peacock in the US