Is skirt off sick?” This one question, asked by Daniel Cleaver of the titular character in Bridget Jones’ Diary, kick-started a doomed office romance that by today’s enlightened standards would, at best,

Now, Grant has returned as the (sometimes) loveable rogue in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which sees the title character return to the dating scene four years after the tragic loss of her true love Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).

What makes “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” especially enjoyable, then — and the best since the 2001 original — is not that Bridget finds a way yet again to triumph over doubts and obstacles. It’s that she still makes us care so darned much.