With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Renée Zellweger returns to our screens to reprise her role as beloved hapless romantic Bridget Jones. The highly anticipated fourth instalment of the comedy film series, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, was met with fanfare and curiosity alike on its release day in Irish cinemas on Thursday.
Terri Deegan from Pearse Street in Dublin and her daughter are among the eager fans who have showed up to the Savoy Cinema on O’Connell Street at lunchtime on the opening day.
For Deegan, the series brings with it some special memories shared with family.
“We went to all the other Bridget Joneses with my mother and sister but my mam passed away last year so my sister won’t go. So me and the daughter said come on we’ll go, and my Mam’s beside us,” says Deegan, gesturing to her left.
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Recalling the tradition of cinema trips to see earlier instalments, she says: “We used to go to the one out in Coolock, because my Mam’s from out there. So that’s where we used to go and have our goodies and all. We’d get a lift home all, it’d be great.”
What has Deegan excited about Bridget Jones’s latest misadventures coming to our screens? “She [Zellweger] hasn’t been on the screen in a while, do you know what I mean. It looks funny, so it does. I can’t wait ... It’s really groovy, there’s more movement and music in it so that’s something I’m looking forward to.”
Angelique Jenkins, from Australia, was also in the Savoy today on a solo cinema trip: “It’s just my little treat for myself.”
Only in Ireland for three days, Jenkins says she is a big fan of Zellweger’s character.
“I just love her as an actress and the story, themes ... I do like the character. She’s just wild and free and just quirky, everything that I like about being a woman,” she laughs.
“I just came for three days, I’m here from the UK. I was with my daughter at Cambridgeshire, so she sent me off here for three days and I’m feeling like just going to the movies today.”
Kay Lynam and her friends are on a “Palentine’s” day out, “celebrating our birthdays, our three birthdays.”
The trio are all fans of the romcom series, and with Valentine’s Day on their minds, they decided a trip to the Savoy to see the newest film would be the perfect addition to their afternoon.
“It’s because we’re out for lunch and it’s Valentine’s tomorrow and the movie is starting today that we decided we’d come and see it”, says Lynam.
“We’ve been told inside to bring tissues, that we’ll be crying and laughing from time to time. We don’t know yet so we’ll go in and see ... Palentine’s, that’s what it is for us today.”
Lynam and her friends are not the only ones celebrating their birthdays with a healthy dose of Bridget Jones. Rhiannon and Ed Walshe are visiting Dublin together from Mayo.
“It was my birthday yesterday, says Rhiannon, “so we’re here for that and we were just trying to find something to do and it was kind of the only film that we felt like seeing, so we’re not really like big fans.”
So is this an early Valentine’s date? “We don’t really do Valentine’s Day.” The couple say they last saw Barbie in the cinema.
Meanwhile over at Odeon’s Point Square cinema, Andrea Dodd and Nora Condon have already secured their tickets for a screening next week.
“We have a cinema club in our workplace and we try to come to the local cinema if we can at a time that suits, and Bridget Jones was the only film that was on at a time that suits,” says Dodd.
“It’s something nice and enjoyable to see,” Condon says, “It’ll be relaxing. It won’t upset anybody, it won’t be hard to watch or anything. So just a relaxing evening ahead with a group of friends.”
With presales for the movie said to be on track to break box office records, it looks like planning ahead is not a bad idea.
