Film Friday Bridget’s having a baby! She used to have a diary but now she’s having a baby too. And, without going into too much detail, she’s not quite sure who the father might be. Of course, Mr Firth is in the picture, otherwise known as Mark on/off/on/off/on/maybe-off/maybe-back-on Darcy. He has a 50/50 chance of being dad, along with relationship guru Jack. So Bridget, as ever, gets into a right tangle and asks the doctor to play along as she takes both prospective fathers on separate visits to the first scan.
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Colin Firth has been in this ‘am I/aren’t I’ territory before in a little movie you might just have heard of called Mamma Mia. It’s the sort of scenario you might find on the Jerry Springer show. People in embarrassing situations about DNA tests and the like. Both Mark and Jack both want to be the father, providing the baby is theirs. And so the tale bumbles on and the hapless Bridget does her best to muddle through.
I wonder what a movie called Mary of Nazareth’s Baby might look like. Surely she must have stumbled and blundered at times as she wrestled with her surprise pregnancy. She knew who the father was, but had the mountainous task of explaining this to her prospective husband. And, though for us it is a powerful Christmas tale, at the time it might well have really shaken Joseph. A few years ago the BBC Nativity portrayed Joe as really struggling to get on board. I’d never seen the tale in that way before but it made me think. Mary and Joe were three dimensional human beings, obedient and faithful, but their understanding, trust and faith must have gone through many hoops on this chaotic journey. Not least when Mary started to show, effectively shaming her family (as they saw it) and shaking the community. Bridget doesn’t suffer this, though her mother is a little reticent as she’s standing as a local counsellor and expounding family values. Mary and Joe risked harsh rejection and misunderstanding when they said their ‘yes’ to God. As did the baby himself, as he grew up and began his world-changing mission. One of the posters for Bridget Jones’s Baby sports the tagline – Big Problem. A poster for Mary of Nazareth’s Baby might well carry the tagline – Big Solution.
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