Love, lust, and massive lips – how Mad About The Boy unfolds, and of course the answer to the question that drives the universe: Roxster or Mr Walliker, which suitor ends up with our Bridget? (We find out near the end that Mr Walliker is actually called Scott but I’m a mum and can only ever call teachers, even pretend ones in movies, by their surnames.) [If you’re looking for my 4 star review, it’s here]
Mad About The Boy is about Bridget Jones learning to live again, and it’s true she can only do this after a hefty kick up the backside from her friends (oh and her gynaecologist). But it turns out the power that eventually drives her and her young children forward to happiness – while always honouring Mark’s memory – is nearly all hers. From the letters she, Mabel and Billy write to him and release with balloons on his birthday, to her belief that love, and the beloved, never really die, she makes sure her family can, when the time is right, live and love again.
Part of that is understanding that love can be fun and fleeting, pushing you on your way without being some lifelong great romance, as we see in her relationship with young Roxster. They do not go the distance – though we do get a reminder of the famous scene from the BBC’s 1990s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, which saw Colin Firth as the first Mr Darcy emerging from a pond, his white shirt sopping wet. Roxster dives into Talitha’s swimming pool to rescue her pet dog, to the delight of Bridget’s friends and colleagues and indeed Bridget herself, who is basking in his glow.
However it turns out he does actually mind that Bridget is older than him, admitting to Bridget he wishes he had a time machine. And then he just disappears.
In the aftermath Bridget’s friends encourage her to give herself a glow-up, suggesting she try a dark web-obtained serum to plump up her lips, which only results in a massive allergic reaction and a mouth which looks like two spacehoppers having a fight.
When she is finally back to normal, Bridget is summoned to hospital by Daniel Cleaver, who has had a heart scare. Faced with his own mortality, he has also realised the only person he could think of to put down as next of kin is her. Daniel has a 15 year old son, Enzo, who he hasn’t seen for years, and admits he is jealous of Bridget’s relationship with her children. She encourages him to think about contacting Enzo.
Parents evening – Bridget, these are all by zoom nowadays which means you can still wear your pyjama bottoms!
At parents evening, Mr Walliker tells Bridget that Billy seems withdrawn.
Bridget accompanies Billy’s class on an outward bound trip to the Lake District as a parent helper, with Mr Walliker leading the trip. They all stay overnight in a barn. Bridget and the teacher talk outside under the stars, before she has to go inside to help one of the pupils. Billy sits with Mr Walliker, and admits to him that he is worried he will forget about his dad. Mr Walliker asks Billy the one thing he remembers about Mark.
Roxster comes to the TV studio where Bridget works, bearing another pie. He tells her he loves her and is indeed ready for a proper relationship with her and her family. Bridget kindly turns him down and he leaves, without the pie.
Bridget and Mabel are rushing to make the start of Billy’s school Christmas concert. The twins (whose mother Nicolette is Bridget’s sometime PTA nemesis) are playing their flutes, badly, while their dad is yet again on his phone. Nicolette calls her husband a prick.
Billy comes out and sings a solo, with Mr Walliker on piano. It’s a song to his father. Afterwards Bridget thanks Mr Walliker and invites him to the pub with her and her friends. He does turn up, but – seeing Bridget relaxed and having fun with her group of friends inside – he leaves without coming in. Bridget sees him go and rushes after him. In a nearby street, snow falling around them, he explains that in energy there is a reaction and an opposite reaction: Newton’s third law of physics. He (Mr Walliker not Isaac Newton) says Bridget is the reaction. He starts waffling on without letting her get a word in, so she shuts him up by kissing him.
A year later it is New Year’s Eve and Bridget is having a party in her house. Daniel is teaching Billy and his friends to make dodgy cocktails. His now-16 year old son Enzo is also there, chatting up the now-single Nicolette. At midnight they sing Auld Lang Syne accompanied by Mr Walliker (oh god I suppose I have to call him Scott now) on the piano.
After the party Bridget puts her children to bed, but first Mabel wants to look for the white owl which has been visiting them. They look outside and see it, but then it flies away (representing their father, now the family have lived through grief and are moving on together). Sco… Mr Walliker is downstairs, but also sees the owl; he too has changed, and can now accept how Bridget’s love for magic and non-scientific explanations has actually been the force allowing her and her children to move forward at last.