Michael Morris gives actors time to make grief and comedy belong in the same film. We value that patience, though Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy shows how easily it can become a reluctance to move things along.
Fi1m perspective
Bridget Jones is in her fifties, widowed, with two children and a house tidier than she is. In Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025), Michael Morris lets that changed life matter before the comedy settles into familiar habits. We were moved by the first hour, because Zellweger and Grant give the business of getting older the care a fourth instalment might easily have avoided. Morris is worth our attention for that willingness to take familiar characters seriously, though his patience becomes a problem once the film settles down.
His television work helps explain that combination of patience and attention to actors. On Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011) he worked as a director and executive producer; on Better Call Saul (2015) he directed five episodes and was an executive producer on the final season. We rate Better Call Saul highly for its performances and precise comic timing, especially Bob Odenkirk's funny, aggravating Jimmy McGill. That makes it a useful place to look for Morris's strengths, provided we remember how many people's work goes into a programme's success.
To Leslie (2022), his feature debut, brought his attention to actors into film through his work with Andrea Riseborough. He works on physical and vocal choices that suggest a character's history, favouring what goes unsaid over explicit explanation. His second feature, Mad About the Boy, pairs that approach with a script by Helen Fielding, Abi Morgan and Dan Mazer. Here the performances of Zellweger and Grant repay the attention, even when the writing gives them more room than the story needs.
Morris's weakness here is knowing when to stop: at 124 minutes, Mad About the Boy stays longer than its comedy can support. Once its promising first hour is over, the film becomes baggy and too comfortable. We would welcome a firmer cut, without losing the space that lets Zellweger and Grant do such careful work. For anyone already fond of Bridget, the return is worth making; just do not expect Morris to hurry it along.
Biography
Michael Morris is an English television and film director and producer. He served as director of the Old Vic Theatre in London from 1999 to 2002 and later worked as an executive producer and director on the television drama Brothers & Sisters (2006–2011).
He has directed episodes of series including In Plain Sight, Halt and Catch Fire, Preacher, House of Cards, 13 Reasons Why, Better Call Saul and Bloodline. His feature film directorial debut was To Leslie (2022). He directed Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025).
Morris was born on 28 May 1974 in London. He has been married to actress Mary McCormack since 2003.
