Making a sequel is never an easy endeavor, particularly when you are following up on a cultural phenomenon such as Bridget Jones’s Diary but 2004’s romantic comedy sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, is a competent if not nearly as masterful as the original in terms of tone and pacing.
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The Movie Review
To be sure, people who enjoyed the original will find a lot to like here yet few who aren’t familiar with the Bridget Jones saga will find a reason to become interested in Edge of Reason. Indeed, if anything, the change in pace might be jarring for fans of the original and somewhat strange for everyone else.
After all, you still have women pitted against each other with ageism, sexism, chauvinism, and every other kind of objectionable -ism you can imagine in what devolves into an almost vaudeville, slapstick affair that undercuts the romantic, striving themes of the original in favor of something a little bit more relatable while being simultaneously situationally outrageous.
Without delving into spoilers, this edition is globe-hopping whereas the first film was largely situated in the UK and this frenetic pace makes the plot somewhat difficult to follow.
Plot Thicker Than Grandma’s Mystery Stew
There are also more than a few moments of disbelief that these characters that we are ostensibly invested in at this point engage in such pointless behavior in exotic, far-flung locations that the majority of the film’s audience will never see.
Are ennui and romantic misgivings, insecurities, and general inanities really that interesting while on vacation? In “The Edge of Reason,” they are a driving force for much of the plot and this kind of shotgun shell spray and pray as far as this is concerned has a lot for everyone while offering no one anything substantial.
Sequel Syndrome: The Middle Child
Like one meal before another, “The Edge of Reason” is a vehicle for introducing a third film in the series and as a sort of middle edition suffers as a result. Nothing of real consequence happens, and resolutions, unlike in the first film, seem to echo the past and don’t really move anyone forward.
Again, everything is infected with a kind of stasis that begs for a third film to come later whereas the first film, even with its faults, felt like a complete, coherent work, standing and falling on its own merits.
To Watch or Not to Watch? That is the… Meh.
Should you watch the sequel to Bridget Jones’s Diary? If you’re invested in the characters, then this is a fun film although you might wonder what the point of it all really is.
It’s hard to ignore the back-and-forth plot, the “will they or won’t they” moments, and the audiences’ need to string all of these instances together into some kind of motivation to keep going without finding it all so tedious.
Thankfully, the comedic elements, much more unhinged than in the first film, help inject some energy and chaotic verge into an otherwise meandering plot.
