Wordiezett So much average

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

rivertam26 I'm so happy I was lucky enough to revisit this splendid film. i remember seeing it when I was younger. But now it feels like a different movie. it's even better than I remember it and that may be because I can truly appreciate the films message more prominently. The film centers on a young woman named Muriel played by a young Toni Collette who gained 40 lbs. for the role. She's sort of an odd duckling whose friends don't appreciate her and constantly put her down. And that goes the same for her verbally abusive father as well. After her friends decide to "break up" with her she finds an old acquaintance from high school while on a vacation and they become best friends. She tells a lie and than it leads to another and another. Her dreams of getting married consume her completely and I'm sure you can guess what ultimately happens. Let me say that this movie is hysterically funny but it does move into a very depressing stage but really has some very important things to say. About self worth, following your dreams, society's impressions on how we should live our lives, friendship and finding a way to truly be happy. I'm sure it sounds a bit corny but it's all handled with an unexpected grace which really make it the one of a kind film it is and one of the best movies I've ever seen!

najwa-sky-limit i know it's a great movie because it made me cry and i don't cry while watching any movie, of course some would say it's not a good enough movie i would say just watch it and full in love with Toni Colette and Australia as she made it the warmest place on earth. you would think it's a comedy movie or a drama but it's more than that it's a call for life and seeking freedom and real love and friends it will make you recheck your list of friends to see who are the true ones, it will make you recheck your life to make sure you'r living it right and for the right reasons and Toni oh boy she's a miracle. just watch the damn movie and you won't regret it, IT'S A MASTER PIECE

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/

James Hitchcock One of the hallmarks, and one of the strengths, of the Australian cinema, is originality, the ability to produce films quite different from anything in the Hollywood or British mainstream. This ability dates back to the days of "Walkabout", "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and "Crocodile Dundee", and the offbeat comedy "Muriel's Wedding" from 1994 falls within the same tradition. It also falls within the recent Australian tradition of films satirising life in the provinces while retaining a certain affection for those that live there. ("Sweetie" and "Opal Dreams" are other examples). The film was written and directed by Paul J. Hogan, not to be confused with his namesake Paul Hogan of "Crocodile Dundee" fame.The main character, Muriel Heslop, is a young woman in her early twenties from the fictitious Queensland seaside town of Porpoise Spit. Her life is dominated by her tyrannical father Bill, an ambitious and corrupt local politician, whose family seem crushed by the weight of his expectations. Muriel's mother Betty is a downtrodden, subservient wife and her siblings are lazy, unambitious and permanently unemployed, with no interests in life other than watching television. She herself is overweight, naïve and socially gauche; she is mocked by her contemporaries, even those she considers her friends, for her weight, her lack of social graces, her lack of fashion sense, and her obsession with the music of ABBA, regarded as hopelessly untrendy by the mid-nineties. (Several ABBA songs feature on the soundtrack). Although she has never had a serious boyfriend, her one great ambition is for a glamorous wedding.Muriel's life changes when, while on holiday, she makes a friend named Rhonda who, unlike her Porpoise Spit contemporaries, is prepared to accept Muriel for what she is. Muriel leaves her family to set up house in Sydney with Rhonda and eventually achieves her dream of a big white wedding, although the circumstances are rather unusual. Muriel's husband is David, a handsome young South African swimmer, whom she hardly knows but who needs an Australian passport in order to swim for his adopted country in the Olympics. (This plot line suggests that the film was originally conceived several years earlier, when South Africa was banned from international sport because of apartheid).Toni Collette was relatively unknown in 1994, but this was the part that first brought her to international attention, and she gives an excellent performance, making Muriel an appealing heroine despite her social awkwardness. There are some other good performances, such as from Bill Hunter as Muriel's autocratic father, but I was less taken by Rachel Griffiths as Rhonda, even though I have admired Griffiths in other films such as "Hilary and Jackie". Although she is supposed to be a likable character, Muriel's one true friend who loves her for what she is and who copes bravely with illness and disability, I found the foul-mouthed, promiscuous Rhonda a bit too abrasive to be sympathetic.Although "Muriel's Wedding" is a comedy, and in places a very funny one, it also deals with some serious themes, and avoids Hollywood sentiment. (Hollywood would doubtless have made Muriel slimmer and prettier, would given greater prominence to David and would have turned the film into a rom-com in which the two young people end up falling madly in love). It is essentially a coming-of-age story, what in German would be called a "Bildungsroman". It is the story of the heroine's discovery of self-confidence rather than self-loathing, of how she learns to accept herself for what she is. It is notable that for much of the film she insists on being called "Mariel", only to revert to "Muriel" by the end. Behind the humour and the satire the film is often touching and poignant. 7/10