(From IMDb.com)

Oh, that Bridget Jones. She falls for smooth-talking sports agent who had her from hello …

Wait a minute. That was Renée Zellweger’s character in Jerry Maguire. That one was from the Way Wayback Machine, in 1996, when she played a sweet and innocent woman who entangles herself with Tom Cruise’s Jerry despite herself, but learns a lot about herself and teaches him even more. Say it together, awwwwww.

Bridget Jones’s Diary didn’t come along to satiate the world’s need for the same sort of romantic comedy until 2001, when Zellweger took on the role created by British writer Helen Fielding in first a newspaper column and then a pair of novels. In this one her Bridget knows her flaws and works hard on them while falling for not one, but two guys, played Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. The world liked her dilemma. Awwww, shucks.

A sequel came out in 2004, and in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason she’s still enamored with Mark and Daniel, but not at the same time, she explains.

Time goes on.

Until Bridget Jones’s Baby arrives not nine months, not nine years, but 12 years later.

Now the single TV show producer can’t love Daniel anymore because he died in a horrible accident. Her split with Mark led to him remarrying. Life can be such a drag. So her coworker convinces her they need a trip to a music festival, where after some clumsy Bridget-like antics, she meets a handsome American played by Patrick Dempsey. They click, oh, yeah. A couple of weeks later she runs into Mark. They click again, oh, yeah.

Oh, what a night. (From IMDb.com)

Directed by Sharon Maguire and co-written by Fielding, Emma Thompson and Don Mazer, the 2 hours, 3 minutes is a pleasant romp on Blu-Ray for my dear wife Karen and I on the living room flat screen.

Bridget doesn’t know who’s the daddy. Both men warm up to the idea. She doesn’t know how to choose, or let them down, or …

Go ahead, see for yourself.

Bridget delivers some charm within the discomfort, of course.

Are you or are you not a fan of the Bridget Jones franchise, and why? Which is your favorite Renée Zellweger movie, and why? Did you like Patrick Dempsey more on TV, or in the movies, and why?