Bridget Jones - Mad about a Boy: A Masterclass in Living, Loving and Laughing Through Loss

If you are going through a bereavement, or have recently lost someone you love, I know that the idea of watching a rom-com might seem, at best, irrelevant and at worst, an insult to your grief. But Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is not just a rom-com—it’s a story about loss, love, and finding a way to live again when your world has been turned upside down.

I won’t spoil the film for you but let’s just say that if you’re expecting the full-blown, wine-soaked, big-pants comedy of classic Bridget Jones, you might need to adjust your expectations. Yes, it will make you laugh (heaps, in fact!) but it will also make you cry—and, more importantly, it will remind you that both can sit side by side in life.

Grief is never tidy. It’s unpredictable, messy, and, occasionally, as Bridget herself might put it, “a complete and utter balls-up.” One minute, you’re holding it together, the next, you’re sobbing into a Tesco bag-for-life because you found their old jumper at the back of the wardrobe. But here’s the thing—laughter and tears are not opposites; they are partners in the strange, uncharted territory of grief. And this film, in its brilliantly Bridget way, shows us that we can still have joy, even when our hearts are broken.

What’s especially powerful is the way it portrays parenting through grief. If you have children, you’ll know the unbearable ache of trying to support them while barely holding yourself together. Bridget—flawed, funny and full of love—navigates this with her beautiful clumsiness that feels painfully real. She reminds us that we don’t need to be perfect to be enough for our children. What matters is that we keep showing up for them, that we talk about the person they’ve lost and that we find ways to keep their memory alive—not in a solemn, untouchable way but in a way that allows their love for them to live on, in stories, in laughter and in everyday life.  

There is no right way to grieve, but Mad About the Boy gives us permission to find our own way through it. It’s a gentle nudge to let love in again, to allow the possibility of joy and to remember that our lost loved ones are never really gone—they are woven into us, in every laugh, every tear and every slightly disastrous attempt to move forward.

So, if you are grieving, go and see it. Bring tissues. Bring chocolate. And maybe, just maybe, let Bridget remind you that even through heartbreak, there is still life to be lived. X