Released just in time for Galentines & Valentines – our national singleton treasure – Bridget Jones returns to our screens in Mad About the Boy – the latest installment of Helen Fielding’s popular series and based on her 2013 novel of the same name.

For those expecting rolling, laugh a minute absurdity at our hapless heroine’s escapades, this is a very different film from its predecessors, and for those of the lachrymose tendency – bringing a tissue is probably a sensible contingency: within the first ten minutes we learn that Bridget has lost both her father – cue sad hospital bed scene with Jim Broadbent AND the love of her life – the smoulderingly handsome human rights barrister  – Mr Darcy (reprised by Colin Firth in some flashback/dream scenes).

This is a film as much about loss as it is about love – a weighty theme to navigate for any romcom. There is a depth to this work that is lacking in the lighter, more frivolous predecessors; Bridget deals with real grown-up stuff, not a few extra pounds of weight or a disappearing boyfriend. Set four years after Darcy’s untimely death, this is a story primarily about rebirth: Bridget rebuilding her life, coping with single motherhood to her two young children (themselves coming to terms with their own loss), returning to work as a still dizzy, but now eminently competent TV producer and dipping a proverbial toe in the 50-something dating scene.

Fans of the series will be pleased to see some familiar staples of the Bridget Jones franchise: The three friends (Shazzer, Jude, and Tom)  now older and more successful, are still drinking cocktails and cheering Bridget on from the side-lines. Emma Thompson reprises her previous role as a gynaecologist and Hugh Grant returns as ageing lothario Daniel Cleaver, complete with wrinkles and a dodgy ticker. Still chasing twenty-something models, he now cuts a rather tragi-comic figure, but the deep friendship he shares with Bridget and her children is both tender and heart-warming, avuncular rather than predatory, with Bridget now very much portrayed as his equal.

Bridget continues to find herself in unbelievable and often hilarious situations  – meeting toyboy Roxster (Leo Woodall) whilst stuck up a tree. Their romance is sweet and more meaningful than expected, but the Roxster character, whilst well-acted by Woodall remains largely unexplored and the romance ultimately short-lived (despite the film’s title). Bridget’s second love interest Mr Wollaker, (Chiwetel Ejiofor) initially seems to suffer the same emotional repression of an earlier Mark Darcy, but the unfolding of his relationship with Bridget rings truer than some of the earlier Roxster shenanigans.

There are several laugh out loud moments to remind us that this is the same madcap blonde of earlier incarnations. Instead of blue string soup Bridget is now setting spaghetti on fire.  However a lot of the humour is tinged with a certain sadness – turning up in pyjamas at the school gate more a physical reflection of Bridget’s own state of mind.

This is not the pure escapism and sugar-coated fun of the earlier editions of the franchise, and some viewers may feel short changed and a little disquieted by a film that seems much more bittersweet and poignant, yet on the other hand more memorable and, ultimately, truer to life. Some of the comedy does at times seem a little jarring and slightly misplaced sitting alongside very moving and touching scenes which in turn provoke a rollercoaster ride of emotions. This isn’t a modern fairy tale, yet ultimately  there is optimism and friendship and love in all its many incarnations.

In cinemas nationwide now