Lewis is a young Sydney amateur theater director at his first experience: he is offered a job with a Governmental program for the rehabilitation of mentally ill patients in a Sydney ... See full summary »
A working-class family from Melbourne, Australia fights city hall after being told they must vacate their beloved family home to allow for infrastructural expansion.
Against the background of an Australian desert, Sandy, a geologist, and Hiromitsu, a Japanese businessman, play out a story of human inconsequence in the face of the blistering universe. ... See full summary »
Director:
Sue Brooks
Stars:
Toni Collette,
Gotaro Tsunashima,
Lynette Curran
A mob mix-up in Chicago sends two chanteuses screaming for L.A., where they score a perfect gig: posing as drag queens on the dinner theater/cabaret circuit. Things get extra-weird when a guy falls for one of the girls.
Director:
Michael Lembeck
Stars:
Nia Vardalos,
Toni Collette,
David Duchovny
Strait-laced Rose breaks off relations with her party girl sister, Maggie, over an indiscretion involving Rose's boyfriend. The chilly atmosphere is broken with the arrival of Ella, the grandmother neither sister knew existed.
Director:
Curtis Hanson
Stars:
Toni Collette,
Cameron Diaz,
Shirley MacLaine
A charismatic, crazy hothead transforms a family's life when she becomes the nanny of five girls whose mother has cracked from her husband's political ambitions and his infidelity.
Director:
P.J. Hogan
Stars:
Toni Collette,
Anthony LaPaglia,
Liev Schreiber
Muriel finds life in Porpoise Spit, Australia dull and spends her days alone in her room listening to Abba music and dreaming of her wedding day. Slight problem, Muriel has never had a date. Then she steals some money to go on a tropical vacation, meets a wacky friend, changes her name to Mariel, and turns her world upside down.Written by
Lynn Salmon
The name of Muriel's fictional fiancée, Tim Simms, is has resonances (perhaps unintentional or even subconscious) with the names of two Australian food items - Tim Tams (a chocolate-coated biscuit, or cookie in US English) and Dim Sims (a pseudo-Asian meat dish). See more »
Goofs
When Betty Heslop writes the first check to "cash" for Muriel to buy cosmetics, it is dated 12-1-1994. When Muriel hands her father a check for $5,000 near the end of the film, that check is dated 2-11-1992. See more »
Quotes
Muriel:
I can't stay married to you, David. I have to stop lying now. I've told so many lies... I don't love you.
David:
I don't love you either, but I think I could like having you around.
See more »
Alternate Versions
The theatrical release clearly showed a woman dressed as Wonder Woman and a man dressed as Robin during the talent show scene when Muriel and Rhonda are presented with the over-sized check and champagne. In the DVD/video release, Robin is only partly shown and Wonder Woman is not shown at all. See more »
Toni Collette wants to have "Muriel's Wedding" in this 1994 Australian film, directed and written by P.J. Hogan. Muriel is a social outcast living with her dysfunctional family and fantasizing about a better life for herself, as exemplified in Abba music. She wants the excitement the music has, the fun, the prettiness, the glamor. Most of all, she wants a fabulous wedding. Her dreadful father (Bill Hunter) constantly puts her down and constantly elevates himself. He's a councilman. He asks a friend, Deirdre, who has a cosmetics company like Mary Kay, to give Muriel work. He gives Muriel a blank check so she can buy what she needs and start selling. Muriel takes the blank check to the bank, cleans out her father's bank account and heads for a resort where four girls from the "in crowd" - who don't want Muriel around - have gone. There she meets Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths) and starts to have some of the fun she's dreamed about. From there, she moves to Sydney and takes a job in a video store, rooming with Rhonda.
All of Muriel's dreams eventually come true, but she loses what makes her special and what she has always devalued - herself.
This is such a splendid film, made all the more magnificent by the performance of one of the truly great actresses of this century, Toni Collette. Collette belongs right up there with Streep, Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchette. She's not there because she's a character actress who disappears into her roles so that she's unrecognizable from film to film. Here she embodies Muriel - overweight, badly dressed, with low self-esteem who, in the process of finding out who she is, emerges as an attractive person who knows what's important and what it is she really wants.
"Muriel's Wedding" is not a raucous comedy. It has many layers - ridiculous characters, such as her supposed vain friends, and then it turns around and gives you a complicated character like Rhonda, who loves life and lives it with complete abandon until tragedy strikes. Griffiths gives a beautiful performance. Hunter, the man we loved to hate in "Strictly Ballroom," is even more hateful here, but in the end, seems to have learned his lessons too.
Muriel learns what we all learn - life isn't what goes on on the outside, it's what happens inside. What's valuable isn't the wedding dress and all the pomp, but the souls and love involved and the real meaning of marriage. Then you're a Dancing Queen and you can really feel joy.
Such a great film, made possible by Collette and Hogan's excellent script and direction. Don't miss it.
26 of 28 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Toni Collette wants to have "Muriel's Wedding" in this 1994 Australian film, directed and written by P.J. Hogan. Muriel is a social outcast living with her dysfunctional family and fantasizing about a better life for herself, as exemplified in Abba music. She wants the excitement the music has, the fun, the prettiness, the glamor. Most of all, she wants a fabulous wedding. Her dreadful father (Bill Hunter) constantly puts her down and constantly elevates himself. He's a councilman. He asks a friend, Deirdre, who has a cosmetics company like Mary Kay, to give Muriel work. He gives Muriel a blank check so she can buy what she needs and start selling. Muriel takes the blank check to the bank, cleans out her father's bank account and heads for a resort where four girls from the "in crowd" - who don't want Muriel around - have gone. There she meets Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths) and starts to have some of the fun she's dreamed about. From there, she moves to Sydney and takes a job in a video store, rooming with Rhonda.
All of Muriel's dreams eventually come true, but she loses what makes her special and what she has always devalued - herself.
This is such a splendid film, made all the more magnificent by the performance of one of the truly great actresses of this century, Toni Collette. Collette belongs right up there with Streep, Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchette. She's not there because she's a character actress who disappears into her roles so that she's unrecognizable from film to film. Here she embodies Muriel - overweight, badly dressed, with low self-esteem who, in the process of finding out who she is, emerges as an attractive person who knows what's important and what it is she really wants.
"Muriel's Wedding" is not a raucous comedy. It has many layers - ridiculous characters, such as her supposed vain friends, and then it turns around and gives you a complicated character like Rhonda, who loves life and lives it with complete abandon until tragedy strikes. Griffiths gives a beautiful performance. Hunter, the man we loved to hate in "Strictly Ballroom," is even more hateful here, but in the end, seems to have learned his lessons too.
Muriel learns what we all learn - life isn't what goes on on the outside, it's what happens inside. What's valuable isn't the wedding dress and all the pomp, but the souls and love involved and the real meaning of marriage. Then you're a Dancing Queen and you can really feel joy.
Such a great film, made possible by Collette and Hogan's excellent script and direction. Don't miss it.