When I decided I would write an article about Bridget Jones I had little memories of the movie that became a phenomenon in the 2000’s. I didn’t grow up with Bridget, so I didn’t discover her life lessons until later on. I was only a baby when the first two films launched, my life priorities back then were so different than 30 year-old Bridget Jones’. But she did pass through my life in a very subtle way  – I have a memory of a VHS my mom had in her cabinet, at our holiday home in the mountains, with Bridget holding a diary in her hands, and her pen in her mouth, while two boys were jumping out of her head. Or so I imagined. More than ten years later, when I was in my 20s, I went to the cinema to watch Bridget Jones’s Baby, the third and (supposed to be) the final movie, and I remember I enjoyed it so much, I looked for the other two and watched all of them in a beat. She seemed like the kind of girl that could become my best friend. Many times on the outside, but somehow always getting the good guys. If I have learned anything from Bridget Jones back then, it’s that you should always strive to be yourself, even in the moments you don’t feel like it and you would rather put on an uncomfortable pair of Spanx wedgies just to look sexier. It was the advice I followed bluntly in my 20s and it must have saved me somehow. I was always the girl who didn’t care that much about what other people thought about me, being 100% sure there are people out there who will like me just the way I am. 

Over the years, Renée Zellweger’s character has brought to the screen difficult (and mostly taboo) conversations about gender expectations and body image.

When I heard there’s a new Bridget Jones on the way, coming to cinemas this year, I knew I wanted to write about it. She was a huge phenomenon in the UK, with both public & critical appraisals. After rewatching the whole series, and laughing so hard I almost died, I appreciate Bridget’s way of living even more. Everyone’s so young, yet I’m now their age, with so many stories of bad relationships, horrible work environments and social awkwardness that I understand differently. She works in publishing, but she has never read the big authors everyone is quoting. She smokes like a maniac, something so peculiar for a woman back then, and doesn’t miss a Christmas with her parents, even though she’s forced to wear whatever horrific outfit her mother prepared for her, often just humiliating herself in front of a crowd. Over the years, Renée Zellweger’s character has brought to the screen difficult (and mostly taboo) conversations about gender expectations and body image. She tried to lose endless pounds, when she fell in love with her super-hot boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), got dressed up under a sheet only to not be seen naked by her boyfriend, Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and went to great lengths to become this ideal woman we all try to be at some point in our lives, only to realize the best version she could ever be is actually herself. There will always be men out there who will love her just the way she is – boozy, inappropriate, chaotic and (a little) wobbly. But however we want to describe Jones, she was always this normal woman in whom most of us saw ourselves – who doesn’t look too thin, doesn’t know how to cook and might spill everything on her in the process, or say something lame in the most inappropriate moments.

She’s so real that it’s so easy to watch her and relate to her. And that is what’s so refreshing about all the movies in the series, including the last one, Mad About the Boy.

Romantic comedies usually end when they reach their happy endings, but Bridget Jones has always been a revolutionary, so making a fourth movie in which we see her tackling death was the most natural next move for the producers. And it does not disappoint. The latest Bridget Jones instalment sees her at the age of 50 as a widow with two kids, caught (again) between two handsome men, trying to rediscover life after Mark Darcy’s death, getting out there, in a dating scene so different than the one she knew, with online dating and a lot of sexting. She is the same clumsy, vulnerable woman, but much more at ease with herself. With no job and two kids with so many questions about their father, she spends all her days in the same red (and famous) pyjamas, taking care of her children and reminiscing about her great late love. The film brings back all the familiar faces and some more – Roxster & Scott (played by Leo Woodall & Chiwetel Ejiofor), two very different men who fall in love with Jones. Witty, charming and emotional, with much love and pain, and of course, some Bridget wisdom, Mad About the Boy deserves to be watched and enjoyed with friends and family. 

So what have I learned this time around watching all of the movies? Here is a list of 10 timeless lessons from Bridget Jones, one that I think every woman should read (and maybe print and post it somewhere). 

1. You can have fun in any circumstances. Even if something bad happens to you – like being arrested in Thailand and spending dozens of hours in a filthy prison cell.
2. Love is a choice, but also a feeling. You can be vulnerable while setting boundaries at the same time. 
3. Fight for your principles and morality anytime, even when you don’t have food in your fridge.
4. When you find yourself feeling lonely, just grab a glass of wine and put on some music. (maybe try our Bridget Jones playlist).
5. It’s really okay to be alone in your thirties, it doesn’t mean you will always be. Love is possible even when you’re 35 and have a bottom the size of two bowling balls. 
6. Do not text a lover when you’re ghosted, or drunk. You might regret it.
7. Be unapologetically yourself and always speak your mind.
8. Always say the truth, even when it takes more than it should.
9. Accept the things or the people you lost and try to live on. Embrace chaos, or whatever you’re dealing with. Chin up & onward!
10. Self-love and maybe an extra glass of wine are the key to happiness. In the end, you’re just a woman trying to figure out her life. Be kind to yourself.

Mad About the Boy is released in cinemas worldwide on the 14th of February.

Laura Mușat

Film producer and founder of ADFR, she dreamed since she was little of having a magazine one day. Alongside her job as editor-in-chief, she writes the interview of the month. She loves animals, jazz music and films festivals.