Rent Muriel's Wedding (1994)
3.7 of 5 from 149 ratings
1h 41min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- You're invited to one of the most celebrated and audaciously funny hit comedies of the year - Muriel's Wedding! Follow frumpy, misguided Muriel Heslop (Toni Collette) on her lifelong quest for a glitzy fairy-tale wedding. With visions of nuptials dancing in her head, this ABBA-obsessed misfit ditches her pathetic life and plastic friends in a small Australian suburb for big-city dreams in Sydney. But the road to the altar takes surprising twists and turns - and Muriel is about to learn the lesson of a lifetime. Wry, witty and hailed by critics everywhere, 'Muriel's Wedding' is one affair you don't want to miss.
- Actors:
- Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter, Sophie Lee, Roz Hammond, Belinda Jarrett, Pippa Grandison, Jeanie Drynan, Dan Wyllie, Gabby Millgate, Gennie Nevinson, Matt Day, Chris Haywood, Daniel Lapaine, Susan Prior, Nathan Kaye, Cecily Polson, Rob Steele, Geneviève Picot, Richard Sutherland
- Directors:
- PJ Hogan
- Producers:
- Lynda House, Jocelyn Moorhouse
- Writers:
- PJ Hogan
- Others:
- PJ Hogan
- Studio:
- Buena Vista
- Genres:
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- A Brief History of Film Weddings: Part 2, A Brief History of the Summer Olympics on Film, Cinema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 2, A Brief History of Film...
- Countries:
- Australia
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Reviews (2) of Muriel's Wedding
ABBA, Aisles, and Aftermath - Muriel's Wedding review by griggs
It looked like a frothy wedding comedy. Then Muriel’s Wedding pulled the rug: ABBA, cringey laughs, and—whoops—real sadness underneath.
What I loved (and winced at) was how the big white wedding isn’t a harmless daydream here. It’s a life plan women get nudged towards, and Muriel clings to it like proof she matters. In doing so, she nearly misses the better stuff right beside her—friendship, small joys, and the hard, unglamorous business of learning to like herself.
A couple of split-diopter shots really stayed with me. Muriel sits stranded in the foreground while someone else stays razor-sharp in a doorway behind her, like the world quietly judging.
Toni Collette makes the need feel human, not a punchline, and Rachel Griffiths brings grit and heart. The ending lands as proper relief—earned, not syrupy.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Bridesmaid Blues - Muriel's Wedding review by Steve
Australian cult favourite which flickers erratically between bad taste (almost gross-out) comedy and sentimental, life-affirming melodrama. The former is more successful with some wit and a few big laughs, though it often appears uncomfortably like we are expected to mock these characters for being ignorant, low class trash.
When the mood gets darker, it seems the plot is merely hitting the standard beats of a feelgood Hollywood narrative arc. It's manipulative, contrived and a bit corny, but what the hell. It surely means well and there is some amusing satirical comedy. And it's carried by an iconic performance from Toni Collette in the title role.
Muriel begins as a dim bulb fantasist who obsessively plans for the Big Day but without much realism; not so much because she isn't conventionally pretty as she is a borderline psychopath with no self esteem. She packs her taped copy of Abba's Greatest Hits and leaves behind her unsophisticated provincial home and awful family.
Then in Sydney, after some comical misadventures and a few disappointments, she learns crucial life lessons and becomes a bit more normal. Writer-director PJ Hogan spins his own experiences into a conventional coming of age redemption story, though the Aussie locations and cultural observations make it feel more personal.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.