Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

image for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

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Not suitable under 15; parental guidance to 17 (frequent coarse language, frequent sexual references, heavy themes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
  • a review of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 17 February 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 15 Not suitable due to frequent coarse language, heavy themes and frequent sexual references.
Children aged 15–16 Parental guidance recommended due to frequent coarse language, heavy themes and frequent sexual references.
Children aged 17 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Sexual references and coarse language
Length: 125 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) is a widow and single mother to her children Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). Four years after her husband Mark Darcy’s (Colin Firth) tragic death, Bridget decides that it’s time to reconnect with the world. With the help of her dysfunctional yet well-meaning friends, she jumps headfirst into both work and the dating pool, and ends up being pursued by a much younger man. However, life turns out to be more complicated for Bridget as she reconnects with the idea of romance and sexuality, while navigating her own grief and the realities of parenthood.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Grief and loss; Death of a parent; Romance and sex; Parenthood.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Bridget’s husband is implied to have been killed as part of an attack during a humanitarian mission overseas.
  • Bridget yells at a male character during a mock interview for her son’s class.
  • Bridget is shown verbally lashing out at her doctor, blaming her for “making her” put herself out there again after the death of her husband.
  • Bridget’s internal monologue verbally berates a young female character for being “young, beautiful and perfect”.
  • Bridget stumbles and falls, face first, in a slapstick manner.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Nothing further noted, however, many scenes throughout the film are not suitable for children in this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Billy is shown visibly distressed because of his father’s death, withdrawing into himself and stating that Bridget’s new boyfriend is “not a new dad”.
  • A male character implies that there is no such thing as life after death, which upsets Billy as he believes that this means that his father is truly gone.
  • Billy confides in a male character that he is scared that he will forget everything about his father.
  • A dog jumps into a pool and is shown struggling to swim, while characters around panic and scream.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Bridget is shown to be deeply struggling with her husband’s death. She picks up a box of keepsakes and goes through them, holding each to her face and crying.
  • At a school talent show, Billy sings a song that his father would sing to him before his death, and Bridget cries throughout the performance.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Coca-Cola No Sugar is shown in the refrigerator.
  • Bridget uses a Microsoft laptop.
  • Billy is shown in several scenes using a Nintendo Switch.
  • Bridget uses a Logitech headset.
  • Tinder is mentioned and shown on screen several times.
  • Bridget watches Netflix.
  • Durex condoms are purchased.
  • Listerine is shown in the bathroom.
  • Mabel yells about watching SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • A close up of the Motorola logo on a car is shown.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • There are sexual references throughout the film, where characters talk about “shagging” and getting “laid”.
  • “Boobs”, “cock”, “labia” and “vagina” are mentioned.
  • When seeing attractive male characters, Bridget’s inner monologue is highly sexual, saying things such as “oh f-ck” and “I’ve climbed a magical man tree”.
  • Characters discuss Bridget getting a Brazilian wax before her date.
  • A character tells Bridget to “widen her f-cking circle”, before the women collapse onto the bed laughing.
  • Bridget’s sex life is discussed often and openly, with characters telling her things such as, “if you don’t get laid soon, your vagina will fuse”.
  • A male character refers to giving Bridget “earth shattering orgasms”.
  • Bridget gets called a “very naughty nun”.
  • An adult male character is shown jumping into the water and swimming in a highly sexualised way, while several older women leer at him.
  • Mabel is shown reading flyers about sexual health and STDs, such as thrush, gonorrhoea and syphilis, in a doctor’s office.
  • A character refers to, “sodomy in a Sainsburys”.
  • A 16 year old boy is shown, jokingly in a sexual manner, seducing a middle-aged female character.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Bridget and a male character are shown kissing passionately and undressing to their underwear, before falling back onto the bed. The scene cuts to them under the sheets, implying that they have had sex.
  • A male character states, “you make me so hard, baby”, to Bridget as they kiss on the bed.
  • Bridget and a male character are seen passionately kissing on several occasions.
  • Male characters are shown shirtless on several separate occasions.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Characters are shown drinking beer, wine or cocktails at almost every social event.
  • Bridget uses alcohol to cope with her emotions on two separate occasions, drinking wine straight from the bottle until drunk, both when processing her husband’s death and when she is ghosted by her boyfriend.
  • Bridget drinks wine alone on several occasions.
  • Bridget jokes that she left crystal meth at home with her children.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • There is very frequent use of coarse language in this film, particularly, “fuck”, “fucking”, “shit” and “shitty”.

Other language used in the film includes:

  • Cock
  • Boobs
  • Twat
  • Crap
  • Ass/Asshole
  • Bitch
  • Bastard
  • Bollocks
  • Bugger
  • Bloody
  • Shitballs.

In a nutshell

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is an impressive addition to, and the fourth instalment of, the Bridget Jones franchise, based on the book series of the same name by Helen Fielding. The film maintains the iconic, and somewhat cringe inducing, humour and antics we know from the previous films. However, this film does take a slightly darker angle, pulling at the audience’s heart strings with its raw approach to navigating grief. Due to this heavy portrayal of grief, as well as significant sexual references and frequent coarse language, this film is not suitable for children under the age of 15 and parental guidance is warranted for older teens, up to 17.

The main messages from this movie highlight the importance of learning to love and trust in yourself; and that the ones we lose are always a part of who we are.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Perseverance
  • Curiosity
  • The importance of family
  • Moving forward.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Many of Bridget’s peers are pressuring her into getting back into dating and having sex before she feels ready. Do you think that this was helpful or appropriate of them to do?
  • How did this film portray sex? It may be important for parents to discuss respectful sexual relationships, and perspectives on openness about sex.
  • Bridget is shown dating and sleeping with a significantly younger man and feels bad about herself. Why do you think that she felt this way?
  • Billy is shown to be struggling with the loss of his dad. Parents may like to discuss how the adults in his life supported him through these feelings.
  • Parents may wish to discuss how Bridget and her family grieve for Mark, including the unhealthy coping mechanisms shown (ie drinking) as well as the healthy ways that they processed their grief.