8 Reasons You Won’t Want to Miss Bridget Jones’s Baby
By G.G. Andrew
MADRID, SPAIN – SEPTEMBER 09: Patrick Dempsey attends the ‘Bridget Jones Baby’ premiere at Kinepolis cinema on September 9, 2016 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Europa Press/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Patrick Dempsey as Jack
As the other man in Bridget’s life, Patrick Dempsey’s turn as Jack, the man she has a one-night stand with at the festival, is a welcome addition. After Bridget’s pregnancy test turns up positive, she tracks Jack down when she discovers on television that he’s the founder of Qwantify Love, a company which helps people find their match using mathematics. Oh, and he’s a billionaire.
After Jack recovers from the shock of discovering this strange woman is possibly pregnant with his baby, he comes to her flat and tells her what he would’ve done on the fictional second date they never had—where they would’ve gone, what they would’ve eaten, what they would’ve first fought about and how he would’ve made it up to her. The story he tells, with props included, in one of the most charming moments of the film, and Patrick Dempsey nails it in a warm and amusing way.
Even without being Colin Firth, which is no small thing, he’s still McDreamy here. His shirtless rescue of a pregnant Bridget in a swimming pool is worthy of a rewatch or twenty. There’s also the matter of his relationship with his rival, Mark, which evolves in different ways during the course of the movie, even to the point of reaching a sort of bromance all its own.
Next: Emma Thompson