Muriel's Wedding

Muriel's Wedding is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by P. J. Hogan. The film, which stars actors Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Jeanie Drynan, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambition is to have a glamorous wedding and improve her personal life by moving from her dead-end home town, the fictional Porpoise Spit, to Sydney.

The film received multiple award nominations, including a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (Collette).

Plot

A socially awkward, overweight, naïve "ugly duckling", who is obsessed with the music of ABBA, Muriel Heslop (Toni Collette) is the target of ridicule by the more fashion-conscious girls she considers her friends. She also is a perpetual daydreamer who yearns for a glamorous wedding and marriage to a man who will help get her out of the fictional dead end seaside town of Porpoise Spit, Queensland, improve her personal life, and free her from a tedious life dominated by her demanding and often psychologically abusive father Bill (Bill Hunter), a corrupt politician who verbally lashes out at his subservient wife Betty and their unambitious children at every opportunity. In high School she was shy and socially awkward, but managed somehow to have the "in group" accept her hanging around them. Muriel attends the wedding of one her high school associates in an inappropriate leopard print dress. After witnessing the groom having sex with one of the bridesmaids, Muriel is arrested because by some strange coincidence the store detective from where she shop-lifted was also at the wedding.

After this episode, her former friends (Tania, Nicole and Janine) shun Muriel because they see her as an overweight, directionless no-hoper, as well as due to embarrassment over her past awkward antics. They proceed to continue planning a holiday to Hibiscus Island.

While at dinner with some property developers, Heslop runs into his mistress who has done well in a cosmetics pyramid marketing scheme who recruits Muriel into the scheme. The following day Muriel's mother writes a blank cheque to cash intending for the money to let Muriel buy into the scheme. Escalating from petty theft, Muriel uses the blank cheque to defraud her parents, draining their bank account of $12,000. Muriel uses this money to stalk her former friends on Hibiscus Island.

While on the Island, Muriel's former friends confront her over her stalking, requesting that she leave them alone. Later in the evening, Muriel runs into Rhonda Epinstock (Rachel Griffiths). Rhonda confronts Muriel's former social-group who bullied her in high-school. Rhonda and Muriel catch up, with Muriel inventing grandiose fantasies of a fiancé. Later, Rhonda and Muriel perform an Abba lip-sync in the talent contest. It is unclear where they got their elaborate costumes.

At the end of her holiday, Muriel returns home to be confronted by her mother over the fraud, however Muriel immediately moves to Sydney where she shares a flat with Rhonda and changes her name to Mariel. One night, Rhonda and Mariel go to a nightclub. Rhonda meets two American sailors while Muriel takes a nice man, Brice Nobes, she met at her minimum wage job in a video store. They return separately to the small flat that Mariel and Rhonda share. While engaged in rough foreplay, Mariel and her companion break a window. The sailors that were in Rhonda's bedroom go out to investigate and assume that Mariel's companion is attempting to rape her. It is during this episode that Rhonda falls down and apparently paralyzed.

While waiting overnight in the only empty emergency room in Sydney, Mariel calls her family home where she learns that the Australian Federal Police are investigating her father for corruption. Rhonda discovers she has cancer pressing on her spine and requires urgent surgery. Mariel then co-opts Rhonda's health crisis as the basis of a deception to obtain a free photo shoot from a Bridal shop. During one of Rhonda's rehab sessions, Mariel promises that she will take care of Rhonda and that they will never need to return to their hometown. Rhonda discovers that Mariel has tried on every wedding dress in Sydney and confronts her. Mariel confesses the depth of her deceptions.

Bill and Mariel go to lunch with Bill's solicitors, where Bill confronts Mariel over her criminal fraud and Mariel confronts Bill about his infidelity.

Rhonda's tumour returns necessitating more severe surgery making her paralysis permanent. No longer wanting to be bothered with her only true friend's disability, Mariel moves out, leaving Rhonda no option but to ask her mother to take her back to Porpoise Spit. Mariel enters into a criminal conspiracy to commit visa fraud marrying South African swimmer David Van Arkle so that he can stay in Australia. Mariel agrees to marry David for $10,000 hoping to pay her father off.

At Mariel's elaborate wedding, her former friend group serve as the bridesmaids, while Rhonda bound to her wheelchair is relegated to being a guest, which leads to an awkward discussion between Rhonda and her former bullies. Mariel's father is accompanied by his mistress and Mariel's mother arrives late to the wedding, missing the actual ceremony.

At the end of the ceremony, Mariel doesn't notice her mother at the back of the church and just walks past. After the ceremony Marial and David return to David's apartment who gives her a perfunctory tour of place. After showing her bedroom to Marial, David makes his contempt for Mariel known asking "what kind of person marries someone they don't know?" to which she replies "you did". He shows her a grudging respect when she says that she too wants to win. Realising that their marriage will be platonic, Mariel sits on her bed and contemplates the view.

Meanwhile, back in Porpoise Spit, Mariel's mother accidentally shop-lifts a pair of sandals from a supermarket. Bill arranges with the police for the charges to disappear and takes Mariel's mother home where he announces his intention to divorce Betty and marry his mistress, Deidre Chambers.

Betty commits suicide by taking sleeping pills, although Bill calls in favours to have it recorded as a heart-attack. Realising that Betty lived only for her family and that her constant marginalisation broke Betty's will to live, Mariel breaks down and realises that all the frauds, falsehoods and lies only lead to pain. David comforts Mariel and they consummate their marriage.

In her mourning Mariel realises that she can move beyond her family-of-origin issues, that her actions have consequences and that her choices matter. The next morning Mariel asks David for a divorce, who has decided that he likes having her around. However, she leaves him at the hotel wishing him good luck for in the games.

Bill asks Muriel to stay and help raise the kids; she refuses and returns to Sydney. She repays $5,000 of the $12,000 she stole, saying that she will repay the rest when she gets a job back in Sydney. She also states that she will no longer put up with his rude and emotionally abusive treatment of her and her siblings. Although a little taken aback by her new more assertive personality at first he nonetheless respects her decision and gives her his blessing to move back to Sydney.

Mariel visits Rhonda at her mother's house and offers to take her back Sydney. Rhonda accepts who in turn tells off Muriel's former friends. When one of them tries to make an insulting comeback Mariel and Rhonda just laugh it off as Mariel with her new found confidence no longer cares about what they think of her. They ride off in a taxi cab to the airport and say goodbye to various Porpoise Spit attractions (Such as the shopping mall, the beach, the tourists, the condos.) and ride off to a more promising future.

Production

The film used Coolangatta as the locale for Porpoise Spit. Other filming locations included Moreton Island, Darlinghurst, the Gold Coast, Parramatta, Surfers Paradise and Sydney.

For the role of Muriel, Toni Collette gained 18 kg (40 lb) in seven weeks.^[3]

Cast

• Toni Collette as Muriel Heslop
• Rachel Griffiths as Rhonda Epinstall
• Bill Hunter as Bill Heslop
• Sophie Lee as Tania Degano
• Jeanie Drynan as Betty Heslop
• Gennie Nevinson as Deidre Chambers
• Daniel Lapaine as David Van Arkle
• Matt Day as Brice Nobes
• Roz Hammond as Cheryl
• Belinda Jarrett as Janine
• Pippa Grandison as Nicole

Release

Critical reception

Muriel's Wedding received positive reviews from critics and has a "certified fresh" score of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 reviews with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10. The critical consensus states "Heartfelt and quirky, though at times broad, Muriel's Wedding mixes awkward comedy, oddball Australian characters, and a nostalgia-heavy soundtrack."^[4] The film also has a score of 63 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 critics indicating 'Generally favorable reviews'^[5]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film "is merciless in its portrait of provincial society, and yet has a huge affection for its misfit survivors... [it] has a lot of big and little laughs in it, but also a melancholy undercurrent, which reveals itself toward the end of the film in a series of surprises and unexpected developments... The film's good heart keeps it from ever making fun of Muriel, although there are moments that must have been tempting."^[6]

Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle stated, "With such recent hits as Strictly Ballroom and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Australia seems to be cornering the market for odd but delightful comedies laced with substance and romance. The latest, Muriel's Wedding, is another bright, occasionally brilliant, example... The movie is much meatier than its larky comic sheen leads you to think at first... There's poignant drama in this brash, sometimes overstated film, and Muriel's transformation is truly touching."^[7]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it "exuberantly funny... a crowd pleaser that spices a tired formula with genuine feeling... In the final scenes, when Hogan dares to let his humor turn edgy, Collette's performance gains in force, and Muriel's Wedding becomes a date you want to keep."^[8]

Box office

Muriel's Wedding grossed $15,765,571 at the box office in Australia.^[9]

The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1994 and opened in Australia the following month. It earned US$244,969 on 14 screens in its opening weekend in the US and eventually grossed US$15,119,639 in the United States.^[10]

Accolades

Soundtrack

The music of ABBA forms the backbone of the film's soundtrack. Songwriters Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson allowed their use in the film and permitted one of their hits, "Dancing Queen", to be adapted as an orchestral piece as long as the band received a percentage of the film's profits.

Additional popular tunes heard in the film include "Mamma Mia", "Waterloo", "Fernando", and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", all performed by ABBA; "Sugar Baby Love" by The Rubettes; "The Tide Is High" by Blondie; "I Go to Rio" by Peter Allen; and "Happy Together" by The Turtles.

See also

• Cinema of Australia

References

External links

• Official website
• Muriel's Wedding at the Internet Movie Database
• Muriel's Wedding at AllMovie
• Muriel's Wedding at Box Office Mojo
• Muriel's Wedding at Rotten Tomatoes
• Muriel's Wedding at Metacritic
• Muriel's Wedding at the National Film and Sound Archive
• UrbanCinefile.com article