'The biggest love of Bridget Jones' life? Her friends'
This weekend, Bridget Jones and her big knickers are back on screen in Mad About the Boy. And while it might feel like we've spent a grand total of 425 minutes (it's true, I checked) watching her decide which man she's going to end up with, Bridge's true love actually isn't a romantic connection at all. No, the loves of her life are her friends: Jude, Tom and Shazza.
You can forget your Daniel Cleaver and wave goodbye to Mark Darcy (literally, RIP) because once I'd wiped away the tears as I left the cinema, the overwhelming feeling I had was one of appreciation - not for romance, but for deep rooted friendships. Throughout all four films, Bridget's gang are a consistent, reliable presence who lift her up, encourage her and love her, just as she is.
They’re never condescending, always self-deprecating and do whatever they can to help Bridget get through it all. While her boyfriends come and go, and her parents aren’t always the most supportive, you can guarantee one of the group will pick up the phone, no matter what the time.
The characters were inspired by Bridget Jones writer Helen Fielding’s real friends Sharon Maguire, Tracey McLeod, Reverend Richard Coles and Daniel Wood. There’s Jude, a big banking wizz who constantly cries (relatable); Tom, an 80s pop icon forever riding on the success of his one-hit wonder; and Shazza, a journalist who swears a lot and is Bridget’s ride or die - quite literally during the trip to Thailand in The Edge of Reason.
They’re introduced early on during the original 2001 film as Bridget’s “urban family,” and are a mainstay in every movie, cigarettes and chardonnay in hand, offering varyingly successful advice about her love life. From almost taking her to Paris to get over heartbreak, to being a sounding board for her baby daddy woes in Bridget Jones' Baby, to looking after her kids when she goes on a date with Roxster in the new movie. They’re there through thick and thin. As Renée Zellweger puts it, the four of them are a "unit", who wouldn't thrive in the same way without each other.
“I love that relationship," she told Attitude of Bridget and Tom's friendship. "It feels like the four of them together, they’re just this unit. They’d be incomplete without any one of them. It would feel incomplete.”
While romantic movies are everywhere, it’s rare to see a rom-com that makes such an impassioned effort to share the variety of love we can have in our lives. The Bridget Jones movies are a great reminder that women are so much more than *just* their romantic relationships, highlighting the importance of growing and cultivating platonic connections.
It’s even more unusual to see a display of female friendship on-screen that contains no jealousy, or sense of competition. Yes, of course these healthy friendships exist in real life, but Hollywood seems intent on pitting even the best of friends against each other.
As the franchise has developed, so too have the friendships, evolving as time goes by. During Bridget Jones' Baby, while her friends are occupied with their children, Bridget meets Miranda through work, who takes her under her wing with a trip to Glastonbury. Their relationship continues into Mad About the Boy, too, but at no point do her old mates get mad or jealous. So much so, in fact, that the unit gains a member. The square becomes a pentagon.
The most heartwarming scene for me during Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is at the end of the movie when Bridget and her kids arrive at the pub after Billy’s carol concert. They bundle into the warmly lit room, and are engulfed by hugs and praise from her friends, as white wine is passed around and laughter takes over.
Watching on, I didn’t worry about Bridget “being alone” or not ending up with the “right man”, because she has all the love she could ever need in that room. The guy is just a bonus.
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