Jones loses her spunk

The beloved Bridget Jones has returned  to the screen in the third installment of the Bridget Jones franchise, “Bridget Jones’s Baby.” Don’t get too excited  because the endearing spirit of the other films did not transfer to this one.

We first encounter Bridget drunkenly dancing and singing in her apartment before she blows out a lone candle in her birthday cupcake. The audience soon comes to the realization that Bridget sadly never did get to secure her happily ever after with Mr. Darcy.

While Bridget’s love life is in jeopardy, she has achieved great success in her career. However, the film detracts from this success and focuses more on the distressing reminder that Bridget is forty, unmarried and childless.

Lucky for Bridget, this reality is soon altered within 20 minutes of the movie. Bridget’s life morphs into a soap opera, as she finds herself pregnant and questioning the identity of the father. Could it be Jack, the handsome American mogul, or Mark Darcy, the man that Bridget can never seem to escape? The plot of the movie becomes consumed in the quest to figure out not only who the father is, but whose heart Bridget belongs to.

“Bridget Jones’s Baby” offers laughs and enjoyable moments. It was missing the heart that the previous movies had. I loved “Bridget Jones’s Diary” when I was younger, not only because it was rated R and I was ten, but because Bridget was me.

I am awkward and constantly find myself in humiliating situations, and that’s Bridget. You watch her and wonder to yourself,  “When did I sign the rights over to make my life into a movie?”

I love the original Bridget Jones for not being a typical rom-com heroine. She is unapologetically herself, accepts that she will never achieve the perfect body or be as elegant or poised as other women. She doesn’t accept these things in a self-pitying way, but embraces them with confidence. She is awkward, endearing, beautiful and funny rather than the bland and static, perfect woman presented in every rom-com.

I went into this movie expecting to be reunited with this Bridget, but she disappeared. I saw traces of the old Bridget in a few scenes, such as one where she lands in a puddle of mud in an all-white outfit. The old Bridget tries to re-emerge, but her spark is dimmed by reminders that she is aging and childless.

Another irritating aspect of the film is the film’s obsession with Bridget’s weight. Bridget Jones always had “wobbly bits,” but those bits disappeared. Don’t get me wrong, it is completely fine that Bridget Jones has lost weight, but I do not need to constantly be reminded of that fact throughout the whole film. Bridget Jones, like all woman, is more than her weight.

Only near the end of the film do we really see Bridget’s spark reignited, as she finds her independence and treks through the majority of  her pregnancy alone. The film ends with a reveal of the father as well as the revelation that Bridget’s heart belongs to one of her suitors. Although I won’t ruin the ending, it does conclude with a wedding. Did you expect anything less?