Bridget Jones's Baby

On her forty-third birthday, Bridget Jones attends the memorial of her ex, Daniel Cleaver, presumed dead after a plane crash. She sees her other ex, Mark Darcy, with his wife Camilla.

Bridget now works as a television producer and is close friends with coworker Miranda. After spending the night of her birthday alone, Bridget decides to embrace single life, accepting Miranda's offer to go to a music festival where she meets Jack, a handsome man, after she falls into some mud. Later that evening a drunk Bridget crawls into his yurt, thinking it's hers and Miranda's. He invites her to stay and they have a one-night stand. In the morning, waking alone, Bridget leaves, unaware Jack is out getting breakfast for them both.

Returning home, Bridget goes to her friend Jude's new baby's christening, where she is the godmother and Mark has been asked to be the godfather at the last minute. He tells her he and his wife are divorcing and Camilla was only at the funeral for moral support. Realising they are still in love, Bridget and Mark spend the night together. Mark is travelling for work early the next day, so Bridget exits before he wakes up, leaving a note telling him that she fears reconnecting will repeat their past mistakes.

Weeks later, Bridget discovers she is pregnant. She decides she wants to keep the baby despite being single. After a visit to the clinic of Dr. Rawlings, she realises the father could be Mark or Jack. She is unable to contact Jack until Miranda spots him in a TV ad and discovers he is Jack Qwant, a billionaire mathematician, creator of a dating website.

Miranda and Bridget conspire to have Jack as a guest on their news show to get DNA samples to work out if Jack is the father. Although Bridget tries to stay incognito, he recognises her and asks her why she left after their night together. She apologises, blurting out that she is pregnant, implying he is the father, without mentioning Mark. Initially taken aback, Jack later throws himself into the role of father. Bridget also tells Mark the news; he is so thrilled at the prospect that she cannot bear to tell him about Jack. Dr. Rawlings tries to administer an amniocentesis DNA test, but Bridget decides not to go ahead with it while her child is still in the womb as she fears the risk of miscarriage.

Bridget invites Jack to a work event, and is startled when Mark shows up as well. They meet, and the three go out to dinner, where Bridget finally admits that she is unsure who the father is. Although disappointed, Jack takes the news well, but Mark is upset and walks out, though he eventually becomes supportive as well. Mark and Jack eventually become jealous of each other’s bond with Bridget and try to one up each other.

They pretend to be in a gay relationship to avoid embarrassment when the trio attend prenatal classes, which irritates Mark. He becomes increasingly more envious of Bridget and Jack's close relationship and is devastated when Jack lets Mark believe he and Bridget had sex without condoms, making it more likely for Jack to be the father. Mark leaves, ignoring Bridget's calls. Jack asks her to move in with him, but he eventually confesses to Bridget what he told Mark. Upset, Bridget rushes to tell Mark, but seeing his wife arriving at his house, she walks away.

Nine months into her pregnancy, Bridget finds herself locked out in the rain. Mark arrives and breaks into the flat for her. He tells her his wife was at the flat to pick up the last of her things. Just as they are about to kiss, her water breaks. When his mobile rings, Mark romantically throws it out the window, leaving them without a means to call help. They eventually make it to the hospital with some help from Gianni and Jack. Later Jack apologises to Mark for his behaviour. Bridget gives birth to a healthy baby boy, and her friends and parents come to visit them. Dr. Rawlings takes Mark and Jack away to perform the DNA test, and they genuinely wish each other luck.

A year later, Bridget marries Mark, and it is revealed he is the baby's father. Jack is a guest, showing no sign of resentment or jealousy, happily playing with Bridget and Mark's son William. Bridget expresses her contentment that everything worked out. The film ends with a newspaper headline revealing Daniel Cleaver has been found alive.

In July 2009, Variety announced that a third Bridget Jones film was in the early stages of development. Working Title Films confirmed that it would not be based on Helen Fielding's third Bridget Jones novel, but instead would be based on the columns she wrote for The Independent in 2005.[5][6]

On 1 March 2011, it was reported that both Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth were interested in reprising their roles.[7] In July 2011, Paul Feig was in final talks to direct the film based on the script by author Fielding.[8] On 11 August 2011, Universal Studios and Working Title greenlit the third film.[9] On 4 October 2011, Deadline reported that Feig had exited the project due to creative differences with Working Title, and Feig had also worked on the recent draft of the script.[10][11] Production was slated to begin in January 2012 with the returning cast including Zellweger, Firth, and Hugh Grant.[10] On 30 November 2011, Peter Cattaneo came on board to direct the sequel, newly titled "Bridget Jones's Baby" from a script by Fielding, Feig, and David Nicholls.[12] Producers on board were Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title, along with Jonathan Cavendish of Little Bird.[12] The production was delayed due to creative differences between the script of the film and actors, especially Grant as he reportedly disliked the script and left the project, though this was denied by producer Bevan.[11] However, the producer confirmed that they were working on the script and the film would be made as planned.[11]

In April 2013, Firth spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times, stating "unfortunately, it might be a bit of a long wait", and he said he "wouldn't say that it's completely dead in the water, but the way it's going, you might be seeing Bridget Jones's granddaughter's story being told by the time we get there."[13]

In an interview on 10 October 2014, Grant mentioned an existing script for a sequel, though he also expressed his dislike for it, and stated that he would not star in the third film.[14][15] Later in the next week, producers hired Emma Thompson to rewrite the original script written by Fielding and Nicholls.[16]

Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent were in talks to return for the third film to join the cast.[17] On 9 September 2015, Patrick Dempsey joined the cast of the film.[18]

Filming

Set, Windsor Great Park, as Glastonbury

Filming for a short period began in July 2015 in Dublin, where the first scenes for the film were shot at Ed Sheeran's concert at Croke Park.[19][20] Official principal photography with the actual cast began on 2 October 2015 in London.[18][21]

The Television Studio interior scenes, the Hospital Ward interiors and various other scenes were shot on Stages 5 and 6 at West London Film Studios.

On 13 October 2015, shooting was taking place at Borough Market,[22] and later in October in Windsor Great Park, at Rosy Bottom.[23]

Filming wrapped up on 27 November 2015.[24] Reshoots took place for one week starting 8 January 2016.[25]

Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Patrick Dempsey in Paris at the film's French premiere, 2016.

In October 2015, Bridget Jones's Baby was set for a 16 September 2016 release.[26][27] On 23 March the first trailer was released.[28] Like the previous two films, the movie received an R rating in the United States.[29]

Zellweger's physical appearance in the trailer for the film rekindled a debate about the possibility that Zellweger had plastic surgery, which began in 2014 when she re-emerged from a long hiatus.[30] An editorial focused on the trailer for the film by Variety critic Owen Gleiberman titled "Renee Zellweger: If She No Longer Looks Like Herself, Has She Become a Different Actress?"[31] prompted a response from Zellweger, who called the scrutiny over her appearance "sexist" and attributing her difference in appearance solely to "ageing," and wrote an open essay explaining her response in the weeks before the film's release.[32]

Bridget Jones's Baby received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78%, based on 209 reviews, with an average rating of 6.33/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bridget Jones's Baby might be late on arrival, but fans of the series should still find its third installment a bouncing bundle of joy."[50] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a score 59 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[51] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[52]

In October 2022, Fielding told the Radio Times that a sequel was in the works and would loosely adapt her 2013 novel Mad About the Boy.[4]

• Official website
• Bridget Jones's Baby at IMDb
• Bridget Jones's Baby at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official screenplay