Muriel’s Wedding, a 1994 Australian classic, still tells a moving story about family, friendship, and dreams. It’s available on Netflix right now, so I watched it again. After 30 years the thing I remembered was Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths singing ABBA songs. The rest of it had faded. It was like a new movie to me. There are spoilers in this review.
Muriel’s Wedding has endured all these years because it tells a compelling story. Toni Collette plays Muriel, who was unpopular in school, bullied by the mean girls and by her family, and completely unloved.
All Muriel wanted out of life was a big wedding in a beautiful dress.
Muriel’s father (Bill Hunter) was a small time politician and a bit of a crook. When Muriel had the chance she took a wad of his money and went on a vacation. There she met an old high school classmate, Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths). Rhonda was unexpectedly friendly. Kind even.
Muriel’s long suffering mother (Jeanie Drynan) made the mistake of giving Muriel a blank check. More of daddy’s money went missing and Muriel ran off to Sydney to live with hard partying Rhonda.
A shy fellow named Brice (Matt Day) asked Muriel on a date. It would be her first date. When he started kissing her, Muriel was almost hysterical with joy.
Toni Collette was so good in this. She made Muriel real, painfully real. Muriel had a lot of faults. Stealing from her parents was just one of them. The performance by Toni Collette didn’t cover the blemishes, but it made you want love for Muriel as much as she did.
Then, through some trickery and deception, Muriel got a chance to actually have the dream wedding and the dream dress. There was an Olympic swimmer from South Africa, David Van Arkle (Daniel Lapaine). In order to compete in the Olympics for Australia, he needed an Australian wife. Muriel was available.
His fame as an athlete made Muriel famous, too. All her old enemies suddenly loved her. She liked the fame, the lies that made her look good. But when Rhonda had to go back to their hometown and Muriel’s mother died tragically, Muriel finally decided to face reality, be honest, and grow up.
The film was about finding your self-worth, finding your courage and honesty, and finding a loyal friend to navigate life with. She escaped her toxic family and built a better life. What’s not to like in that scenario?
Do your memories of seeing this the first time include more than ABBA music? Do you plan to watch it now if you’ve never seen it before? The comments are open.
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i LOVED this movie. i saw it when it came out and i have watched it again a few times over the decades. it was Ms. Collette’s performance that got me then and it still does. she has done some really impressive work in the 30 years since but this is still my favorite of her performances.
I’d seen her in a ton of stuff before The United States of Tara, but that was when it really hit me how versatile and talented she is. Now I never miss anything she does.
I loved this film 30 years ago. Thanks for your review and for the info that it is currently available on NetFlix.
Another DeBolt! It’s a rare surname. Thanks for visiting the blog.