While attending the funeral of an ex, Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) runs into Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) the love of her life. Mark is now married and attends the funeral with his wife. Since Bridget still hasn’t quite gotten over Mark, seeing Mark at the funeral, and a subsequent christening, hits her pretty hard.

During a girls’ weekend, on which Bridget decides she just needs a good shag, she meets the handsome Jack (Patrick Dempsey). She and Jack have a one night stand. She disappears the next morning, never planning to see him again. After running into Mark again, Bridget finds out he is going through a divorce. Their old flame is reignited, and the two hook up.

Fast forward a bit, and Bridget discovers she is pregnant. While she is somewhat excited about the thought of having a baby, she has no idea who the father is. She doesn’t want to break Mark’s heart by telling him it might not be his while they are rekindling their relationship. A chance meeting at work finds Bridget face to face with Jack. The two men, competing to be the best potential father, also face off to try to win Bridget’s heart.

It has been 12 years since Bridget Jones finished her diary and went to the edge of reason. If you’re thinking that’s a long time to wait for a sequel, I would have to agree with you. But it has worked before. Never having seen any of the Bridget Jones movies, there was no anticipation on my part. If you are wondering if you need to have seen either of the original movies to appreciate Bridget Jones’s Baby, the answer is no. No you don’t.

It is fairly easy to jump in with Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, and newcomer to the series Patrick Dempsey without any catching up on where the characters have come from. The movie serves well as a stand alone story, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. There is no need to get establish a connection with the characters’ histories.

The acting is fine, even if Zellweger’s accent gets a little tiring at times. Colin Firth shows once again that he can be a romantic lead. Although, his absent and aloof character gets a little stereotypical. When compared to Patrick Dempsey’s charming, present, eager to help Jack, there really should be no comparison. It is only the history between Mark Darcy and Bridget that keeps him in the picture.

Bridget Jones’s Baby is pretty standard fare for a romcom. It pulls in all the typical trope of these movies. An aging woman is pressured to have kids. She goes for a wild weekend to relieve some stress. She then must choose between two men. Nothing new and exciting, there. Sure, there is a chuckle here and there, but unless you’ve invested your time with Bridget and her men, the movie is fair to middling at best. Given the lack of competition for the genre, if you’re looking for a romantic comedy, this is your best, if only, hope. Wait for it to show up at the Redbox.