Bridget Jones fans share how they looked ‘before and after’ watching Mad About The Boy – as viewers all say the same thing about comedy film
The latest Bridget Jones film has left fans devastated as TikToks showed cinemagoers bawling their eyes out after the end credits rolled.
The sequel to the beloved rom-com hit screens on February 13 just in time for Valentine’s Day – but the Renée Zellweger-starrer sparked a rather different reaction to its laugh-out-loud predecessors.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy sees Zellweger reprise her role as the titular heroine, as she slowly returns to the dating scene following the shock death of her husband Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
After the release of the film, which stars Leo Woodall as Bridget’s much yougner love interest, fans flocked to the cinemas this weekend to celebrate the season’s most hotly-anticipated release.
But fans expecting two hours’ worth of laughs were caught off-guard by how sad the new movie is – with dozens taking to social media to share their experiences of ‘crying’ throughout the comedy flick.
Several filmed themselves ‘before’ and ‘after’ watching the sequel in clips that showed cinemagoers leaving theatres with mascara running down their faces.
Popular TikTok influencer Charley Marlowe, who looked glamorous with a full face of makeup before going into the cinema, was visibly moved and emotional after the movie ended.
‘I can confirm you were crying the entire way through, you were a wreck,’ her friend said as he held the camera up to Charley’s face.
fans expecting two hours’ worth of laughs were caught off-guard by how sad the new movie is – with dozens taking to social media to share their experiences of ‘crying’ throughout the romantic comedy
Another captioned a video about the film: ‘Watching Bridget Jones on Valentine’s Day and crying was all I needed.’
‘Point of view: you go to watch Bridget Jones expecting to laugh the whole time but you spend the whole time crying. Still 10/10,’ another wrote.
‘This film had no right to be so sad… How perfectly it depicts grief. Billy’s song, Mabel’s owl. All the useless advice from people who just don’t get it. Sobbed the entire time,’ a third mused.
Reviewing the film on TikTok, another joked: ‘Go and see Bridget Jones on Valentine’s Day they said – I’ve just cried for two hours!’
She added that she had found the film ‘sad throughout’ but said there were some ‘naturally funny moments’ and it wasn’t ‘all doom and gloom’.
‘I’m not sure how uplifted I feel going to watch it as a single person over Valentine’s,’ she noted.
Others have praised the fourth film in the franchise as ‘eye-opening’ for it’s exploration of single motherhood and raising a family in the wake of a spousal loss.
One called it a ‘cinematic masterpiece’ and said they had ‘experienced so many emotions at once’ while watching it.
Several filmed themselves ‘before’ and ‘after’ watching the sequel in clips that showed cinemagoers leaving theatres with mascara running down their faces
Bridget’s previous outing – in the 2016 hit Bridget Jones’ Baby – made £8.1million in its opening weekend
However, the box office earnings may not reflect the hype surrounding the new Bridget Jones movie since a number of people have illegally uploaded versions of the film onto social media, according to reports
Before it’s release, the new film was predicted to be a box office smash with UK cinema chain Odeon revealing that more than 150,000 seats were pre-booked and over half of those were sold for Valentine’s Day.
Bridget’s previous outing – Bridget Jones’s Baby in 2016 – made £8.1 million during its opening weekend, and Mad About The Boy’s box office collection looked set to surpass that figure.
However, the box office earnings may not reflect the hype surrounding the new Bridget Jones movie since a number of people have illegally uploaded versions of the film onto social media, The Sun reported.
A source told the publication: ‘It’s a huge blow. Mad About the Boy is going to be massive but there are worries that people just won’t go out to watch it if they can already see it illegally from the comfort of their sofas.’
It comes after Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding opened up about her late husband as she confessed that her family cope with grief using dark humour.
The writer, 66, was in a relationship with The Simpson’s writer Kevin Curran before he died in 2016 aged 59 following a long period of illness.
Helen and Kevin, who share children Dashiell, 20, and Romy, 18, lived together for nine years in Los Angeles before they split in 2009, but Helen remained a strong presence in her ex’s life until his death.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: ‘We have a saying in our family: ‘don’t get too #deathy.’
It comes after Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding opened up about her late husband as she confessed that her family cope with grief using dark humour
The long-awaited sequel hit screens on Thursday just in time for Valentine’s Day – but has sparked a rather different reaction to its laugh-out-loud predecessors, with fans saying they cried ‘for hours’ after watching it
‘I’m always reluctant to be too personal but the children’s father did die and he wrote for The Simpsons, so no joke was too dark to make.
‘That made me see you don’t have to sit around feeling sorry for your loss – people still stay the same person when something bad happens.’
She added of her two children, that they ‘have gone through quite a lot, so they’re quite emotionally intelligent,’ explaining how scenes in the film which show Bridget’s children posting homemade cards to Darcy on his birthday are showing them ‘processing what has happened to their father all the time with her’.
‘It’s not a taboo area,’ she continued.
Helen’s depiction of Bridget losing her husband left fans in tears after the film’s first trailer was released last year.
It showed how the iconic singleton portrayed by Oscar-winning Zellwegger finally married Mark Darcy – played by Colin Firth – after the events that unfolded in 2016’s Bridget Jones’ Baby.
The couple had shared an on-and-off romance across all three films, but finally got their happy ending after it was revealed the high-flying lawyer was the father of her baby.
However, in the fourth book, Mark tragically dies while working abroad as a human rights lawyer – leaving Bridget widowed and alone to navigate motherhood.
