The first Bridget Jones movie was perfectly acceptable; the second one, Edge of Reason, was complete rubbish. It is fitting that the third, Bridget Jones’s Baby, reverts back to the norm of the franchise’s first feature. The third movie milks some pretty predictable gags for all they are hysterically worth. 

Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth return as on-again, off-again, on-again lovers Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy. But the triangle’s third leg, Hugh Grant’s Daniel Cleaver, has been replaced by American billionaire Jack Qwant, played by Patrick Dempsey. And the triangle has become a rectangle, because Bridget is now pregnant, but by whom—her acknowledged soulmate, Mark, or the cute new guy, Jack? 

The whole movie plays like a big-screen sitcom, but the players are charming. The screenplay by author Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer and Emma Thompson—whose brief appearances as Bridget’s doctor are highlights—is witty when necessary and broadly comic the rest of the time. Some inane workplace antics about young, hipster bosses bomb, as does the faux-Pussy Riot subplot. These weak additions plump the running time above two hours and drag down what would otherwise have been a nice hour-and-40-minute romcom.