哦桥…

And you can see the facial expression there, can’t you? It’s the way her friends look at her – with equal parts pity and delight. This is the magic of Bridget Jones. Specifically the magic ofRenee Zellwegeras Bridget Jones. So many of us fell in love with her it’ll be 15 year ago now.

The first trailer forBridget Jones’s Babyhas just been released. I don’t hate it. I just texted Duana with the link telling her that I don’t hate it and asking her if there’s something wrong with me.

Is it just because we are so comforted by the familiar? It’s all there. The voiceover. The Bridget imagination. Bridget eating ice cream on her couchall by myself.Her clumsiness. Her ineptitude at work. I mean the thing with the sprinklers going off is too much TOO MUCH. And I could do withoutPatrick Dempseyputting back on her muddy shoe like Prince Charming but… BUT…

Her mother has always been the best. I will never not laugh during the part in the first movie when she drops the line “Up close he was almost purple!” And her facial expression near the end of the first movie when Bridget’s making her grand embarrassing speech at the Darcy’s Christmas party kills me every time. So seeing her here, in response to Bridget’s pregnancy announcement is irresistible. And I’ve already re-watchedEmma Thompson’s scene twice. The breath she takes between “marvelous” and “moment” is terrific.

Mostly, though, I wonder if the reason I’m not mad about any of this is because of expectation. We’ve already been told that this is about Bridget having a baby. We’ve already been told that Patrick Dempsey is the new Daniel Cleaver. They haven’t promised us anything new. And in not promising anything new, we go back to what we know: Bridget is impossible and disorganised – an adorable mess, even when she’s expecting. And maybe that’s what I’m responding to and what we all responded to all those years ago. Bridget consistently remains herself. Even as she becomes someone’s mother?

There’s a YouTube version of this trailer thatyou can watch herebut I’m embedding the trailer that’s on the Daily Mail site because I am offended by the YouTube replacement of “f-ck off” beeped out with “screw off”. I don’t want to know you if you would accept a Bridget who’d say “screw off” instead of “f-ck off”.

Attached - Renee at SXSW last week.