capone666 Muriel's WeddingThe best thing about wedding season in Australian is that it's winter so your summers aren't completely ruined.Desperate to escape her overbearing parents (Bill Hunter, Jeanie Drynan), hopeless romantic and ABBA super-fan Muriel (Toni Collette) steals money from them and goes on a tropical vacation.She returns home a new woman and gets a flat and roommate (Rachel Griffiths). But these lifestyle changes don't keep her life from falling apart. And as her parents split, her friend gets ill and she drowns in debt, Muriel must grow up in order to stay afloat.More depressing drama than laugh-out-loud comedy, this 1994 sleeper hit from Down Under deals with the harsh realities of becoming an adult, but manages to soften their edges with dark-humor and an up-tempo soundtrack dominated by the aforementioned Swedish pop group.Incidentally, always seat your Australian wedding guests as far from the gift table as possible.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

bcheng93 priceless movie magic: the end of the movie with Muriel and Rhonda in the taxi on the way to Sydney. the look on Muriel's face...ahh, only a great actress can accomplish that, there was so much emotion running through that look, to me it was so bittersweet and that look summed up the whole movie. finally got to see this movie 20 years after its release, and i'm a big fan of Toni Collete. i gave this movie an 8 out of 10 and it is probably a little underrated at 7.2 although that is not shabby at all. the movie feels like it was made on a micro-budget(for sure under a million dollars) and it just shows you that you can still create movie magic with-out a big budget. the movie feels so real, i know families like that and it takes a major effort to break out of surroundings like that and at the end of the movie i think Muriel did accomplish that and was able to feel confident in her own skin. this was by no small feat accomplished by her far-out there real friend Rhonda. these 2 characters made up the whole movie for me. what happened to Muriel's mom was so heartbreaking. not counting what she did to herself at the end, plenty of women live through what she lived through and in a blink you are old and unfulfilled wondering what happened?great movies take you on a trip without you even noticing it and this movie certainly did it for me...a well spent 100 minutes of my life. Toni Collete has got some serious acting chops and is one of my favorite actresses.again to me it is not a feel-good movie, it is really bittersweet and oh that look on Muriel's face at the end...this is going to be one of those timeless classics and if call yourself a fan of movies this is a must see...Enjoy!

Boba_Fett1138 First of all, this is obviously a chick-flick (I mean, it's a movie in which the main character is obsessed with getting married, so how could it not be one?) and if you purely take it as such, this movie still serves its purpose well and is also maintaining enough. However as a movie itself it is far too uneven and does just too much wrong to consider this a great movie in its sort.It's one of those movies that tries to combine humor with drama. And it's not very successful or effective at that, in my opinion. The movie never finds the right balance, since its comedy and characters themselves are being far too over-the-top, which never blends in very well with the movie its, supposedly, dramatic moments.But also a big problem of the movie lays with the movie its main character, played by Toni Collette. She lies to her best friends and own family, she steals and runs of with people's money and also doesn't always comes across as too bright. Somethings obviously wrong with her but in this movie you obviously are supposed to care for her and her naivety is supposed to be something sweet. Needless to say this did not always worked out that way for me at all.But it remains a movie with a sort of charm to it still. I mean, despite everything it remains a pleasant movie to watch, even while it still annoyed me at certain moments. But perhaps that is also because this is obviously supposed to be a chick-flick and I am clearly no chick last time I checked. So it's fair to say this movie is not really for me and women will be more capable of appreciating this movie for what it is.The story is also really lacking some focus at times. Sometimes certain plot lines are simply getting dropped and it often makes some sudden jumps with its story, that don't always connect too well. This also definitely goes at the expense of certain characters in this movie, which I was often more interested in.You can still see how this movie partly inspired 'Mamma Mia!' the musical and later also movie. The ABBA music often plays a central role in the movie and it often has the same sort of happy-go-lucky, colorful, type of atmosphere to it. Good and straightforward enough as a chick-flick but other than that, far too flawed to consider this a great movie.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

treeline1 Living in Porpoise Spit, Australia, Muriel (Toni Collette) is fat, plain, and utterly hopeless, thanks to her father who calls her a 'useless lump.' Her only activities are listening to ABBA music and watching reruns of Princess Diana's wedding. Desperate, she takes a bold step to change her life, moving to the big city to look for love.I love this movie, which is equal parts comedy and tragedy and is definitely a chick-flick. The sparkling Ms Collette is instantly likable and I was rooting for her from the start. (She gained so much weight for the early scenes that she is almost unrecognizable before her swan-like transformation.) Muriel is passionate and sensitive and smart enough to know that a true friend is worth more than a fantasy. The supporting cast is excellent, with Bill Hunter as her horribly abusive father and Jeanie Drynan as her pathetic mother.This touching story of a young woman's search for happiness is full of life and loaded with great ABBA songs. Highly recommended.