Laughs, grief and learning to live again in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

About midway through Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, there’s a particularly swoony scene.

Bridget’s younger lover, Roxster (Leo Woodall), runs and then dives into a swimming pool. He emerges from it, drenched and sporting a now see-through and very wet white shirt.

All around him, surprised party guests are agape, as if the Diet Coke man had just walked into their garden soiree, but there is a much more specific reference the scene is evoking.

In some ways, if it weren’t for the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries and its famous Mr Darcy lake scene, there might not have been a Bridget Jones.

Helen Fielding, who wrote the books the movies are based on, was obsessed with the BBC adaptation and even wrote the character of Mark Darcy, Bridget’s paramour, with Colin Firth in mind.

So, when Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy director Michael Morris went to shoot that scene, he understood exactly what the assignment was.

“Helen is a great modern interpreter of Jane Austen, and there’s always been, from (previous franchise directors) Sharon Maguire and Beeban Kidron, really glancing references to men emerging out of water. I wanted this to be no exception.

“In fact, we were looking at pictures of the shirt that Darcy was wearing in Pride and Prejudice , so that when Leo had the shirt, it was just similar enough it might take you there.”

That day on set, Woodall couldn’t think about all the meta layers that scene was recalling, or it would’ve been too much.

“I wasn’t thinking about it luckily,” he told The Nightly. “If I had, I would’ve felt way too much pressure and my dive probably would’ve turned into a flop.”

A belly flop is the kind of comedic gold his co-star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, would’ve preferred. “I would have liked to have seen that,” he chimed in.

Bridget Jones has always been willing to go big on the humour, to rely on goofy moments, physical comedy and double entendres as a charm offensive. Bridget’s fourth outing has plenty of laughs, and callbacks to the previous films but especially the 2001 original.

From sartorial nods with her sheer top, grandma undies and red pyjamas to thematic Easter eggs, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy knows how to serve fans.

Fan service can be seen as craven or a lazy shortcut, but in the case of Bridget, it taps into what has always been true about the character – she is beloved, and we want to love her.

“I love this character and so do so many people,” Renee Zellweger said, beaming. “So, certainly there is that sense that you want to be really careful with the choices that you make, and also really careful about the quality of what you’re making.

“But it all goes back to Helen and what a cool thing that we’re experiencing Bridget Jones in real time because she’s sharing her most intimate experiences.”

She’s been a surrogate, a character through whom generations of audiences have been able to experience her highs and lows as a way to process moments in their own lives. Her hijinks might be heightened, but the emotions behind them are relatable.

“I’ve known (Bridget) for 25 years,” Morris explained. “I was a bit like Bridget in London at the time, starting out my life as she was trying to figure out her life in publishing. In lots of senses, she’s been a very important character to me over the years.”

Twenty-four years since Bridget Jones Diary, the film finds the titular character still grieving the death of Mark Darcy. Fielding published Mad About the Boy in 2012 and shocked long-time fans when she killed off Bridget’s romantic hero. But it opened up a different realm of storytelling possibilities.

It’s a more mature story, one that Morris described as a “chamber piece about a woman dealing with something but doing it with love and joy and trying to make the best of it”.

In the nine years since Bridget Jones’ Baby, the character has lived a life without us, and she’s been marked by those off-screen experiences. At the Sydney premiere attended by Zellweger, Morris, Woodall and Ejiofor, the audience was laughing and crying.

Zellweger felt the same swirl of emotions when she read the script. “I had the same reaction. By page two, it was over. By the end, apoplectic. In that way, we’ve all related to Bridget Jones over the years and folks still feel that way now.”

The evolution of the character is not something every revival or sequel has managed to handle, but it gives the film purpose and focus.

“It threaded the needle really beautifully because it has to evolve because life is like that, and it sort of needed to meet the moment of Bridget’s life right now,” Ejiofor said. “I feel like it did that really beautifully.”

To weave together a rom-com about finding new love and a drama about the long and painful process of grief is a tough challenge but the filmmakers were confident that an audience that loved Bridget for all of her quirks, joy and determination will follow her into a darker chapter.

There’s a certain risk that comes with taking away one half of Bridget and Mark.

“We had the opportunity to make a film that was largely about grief and moving on, and coming back from grief,” Morris said. “It’s not really about the process of losing somebody, that’s already happened.

“The only way to do it is to do something bold, to lose a beloved character. I love Mark Darcy as a character, I’ve grown up loving him. Colin Firth is one of my favourite actors in the world, it kills me that I didn’t get more of him.

“But that’s what you need to do for an audience that’s grown up with them too, that’s how you feel the loss. You don’t just observe it through a screen. You can have your own relationship to Mark.”

The promotions of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy suggests something of a love triangle between two potential new lovers in her life – the younger Roxster and Ejiofor’s Mr Walliker, a teacher at the school Bridget’s kids attend.

Mr Walliker could be considered to be the more serious prospect. Their first meeting is contentious, he’s a little aloof, she finds him difficult to connect with. But he’s not meant to be a replacement for Mark, neither in Bridget’s life nor in the hearts of the audience.

“These characters are irreplaceable, all the characters that have come before are unique and it would be a fool’s game to try and replace anybody in the universe,” Ejiofor said.

“But Bridget is in a different place in her life, and is met by these different challenges, and although there are certain echoes, there are other things that are meaningful about the way they connect.

“One of the things that always struck me was about the challenges that they have as a family, over loss, and Walliker, as an educator, is uniquely placed to help with some of that, especially for Billy, Bridget’s son.

“To me, that was so profoundly moving and meaningful as way of how all their relationships develop. It felt very real to me.”

In Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, growth is the watchword, and sometimes that’s hard, but it’s unavoidable.

Morris said, “Grief is something that touches everybody. It’s just part of life. It’s not even the doom-and-gloom thing, it’s just part of life. We are all going to come across something like that. So, it has to feel real and authentic.

“Bridget is somebody that we love. If you see this film, there’s a good chance that you love Bridget the person, and it’s quite cathartic to go through it because she shows you that you can go through it.”

Bridget Jones is not just a wanton sex goddess but an icon of optimism, ready to live again.

Bridget Jones is in cinemas on February 13