Muriel’s Wedding

The 1994 Australian comedy, Muriel’s Wedding, was part of a growing list of Australian films that were spotlighted on a global front, giving the little island in the south more media acknowledgement than it ever had previously. With hits like Strictly Ballroom and The Adventures of Priscilia: Queen of the Desert propelling the unique personality of Australian entertainment, Muriel’s Wedding followed suit and achieved equally impressive status, being showered with positive reviews, became a cult classic with several quotable lines and scenes, and started the Hollywood career of beloved underrepresented actress, Toni Collette, who was even nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as the titular protagonist. While it’s hard to call this film a showstopper, it isn’t surprising that it became a beloved flick.

Set in the backwater Australian suburb of Porpoise Spit, Muriel Heslop (played by Toni Collette) is an anti-social oddball who is quickly thrown away by her shallow prettier friends and faces constant judgement from her corrupt politician father, Bill (played by Bill Hunter), who views all of his children as useless deadbeats. After cashing in a blank check given to her by her overly docile mother, Betty (played by Jeanie Drynan), Muriel runs away on a holiday in hopes of finding purpose and getting married, coming across old high school associate, Rhonda (played by Rachael Griffiths) who also decides to tag along on this crazy adventure. While living in Sydney trying to make ends meet, Muriel continues to run from her past crimes and even keeps Rhonda in the dark while fantasizing about her perfect wedding, which gets her into trouble when her parents and eventually Rhonda, learn of her wrongdoings. Through hijinks, familial and friendship-testing ordeals and a ton of ABBA music blaring in the background, Muriel may be forced to confront her problems as a person before she can be awarded a happy ending.

Muriel’s Wedding is a relatively unimpressive feature from a creative and even engagement level, with basic characters, familiar scripting and an otherwise straightforward delivery, yet in spite of this, does still manage to portray all of its components in a perfectly acceptable manner, resulting in an immovable, but otherwise successful picture.

Distributed by Roadshow Family Distributors with the help of producers, Lynda House and Jocelyn Moorhouse, Muriel’s Wedding feels like an intentional parody of the typical female-driven quality-of-life stories. While the prospect of portraying the usually glamorous and risk-free lives of regular women is still a common trope in romantic comedies, the idea of presenting a woman without much style or elegance was becoming more common, and Muriel’s Wedding definitely feels like it’s committing to this new direction without any of the fluff. The Australian look and feel of the picture makes everything feel urban and unrefined, the dialect has a gruff, unkempt, country quality to it that feels very unlike the street metropolises found in most Hollywood chick-flicks, all the actors portray characters of different sizes, beauty standards and even social standings, and the film doesn’t shy away from the fact that most of its cast is pretty unlikeable. It created a distinct identity that’s familiar enough for frequenters of the genre but feels distinct enough that it might act as a brand-new flavor to newly introduced viewers (which could explain the following that it eventually received).

As for the story, the movie does take time to get going, with the narrative being very low-stakes and more focused on real world issues that younger people would be dealing with like not looking pretty enough, being attached to an unhelpful family, trying to find work, meeting friends, etc. The delivery of all these ingredients feels a little hoaky and wacky (which matches the tone of the other Australian films that would become globally popular), but it also feels a lot more chill and unenthused, copying the lackadaisical ambivalence of its main character through its slower pace, few to no extreme sequences, and overall quiet nature. While this might seem like a deterrent, its more casual vibe arguably helps the film feel more approachable and less hyperactive than some of the other Australian flicks, and it does still feature a crazy energy and attitude but one that’s more digestible thanks to the direction by P. J. Hogan (who also helped write the film). His manner of leading the film makes it fun without being ridiculous, directs the characters in a cartoonish way without making them overbearing archetypes, and keeps the tone stable enough that when the serious moments hit, they don’t feel out of place and are played accordingly. It’s not a phenomenal story or delivery, but it does the job nicely.

This film rocketed the career of Toni Collette to new levels, evolving her from a small Australian performer who was already turning heads for her talent, to a celebrity that would never lead a film, but would always show up in unexpected places and delight audiences with her strengths as a performer. This movie doesn’t really establish any of her defining traits or show off her best, but you could see her appeal even back then. The biggest help Collette brings is that without her, Muriel might’ve been too unlikeable to be around for an entire film. A lot of these silly female-led comedies can have protagonist that aren’t always the most sympathetic, but Muriel does a lot of sketchy, irresponsible stuff for nothing more than a shallow personal goal, and even if feels relatable to some, it doesn’t excuse the lying, stealing and mistreatment of those that stuck by her against all odds (what she does to her best friend and her mother is particularly cold). Despite this, Toni Collette manages to bring the best out of the character, making her at least somewhat endearing through her larger-than-life awkward smile, frumpier look, and noticeably awkward delivery. By keeping her as unrefined and intentionally flawed for a good chunk of the running time, her eventual shift into a more rounded person feels all the more genuine, and it does work in that regard. What hampers this a bit is that Muriel doesn’t really have that much of a character outside of these physical attributes and liking ABBA (which again, isn’t much of a character trait). She doesn’t need to be a three-dimensional Shakespearean role, but a little more than a rom-com lead would’ve been nice.

Thankfully, the rest of the cast makes up the lead’s lack of personality, with a bucket load of character coming out of each of their cartoonish deliveries. They aren’t interestingly written and could be a little too much with another person at the helm, but through composed direction and solid enough acting, they manage to be entertaining. Muriel’s four uptight friends; Tania, Cheryl, Janine and Nicole (played by Sophie Lee, Roz Hammond, Belinda Jarrett and Pippa Grandison) are enjoyable caddy and play up their trope to a fun degree, Daniel Lapaine as a South African swimmer Muriel marries starts as a pretty boring role, but through some fun reaction shots and a surprisingly mature conclusion, comes out okay, Bill Hunter seems to play the same role in each of the listed Australian films, but he pulls off the persona well enough and is part of a decently funny gag involving a woman he’s having an affair with, Deidre (played by Gennie Nevinson), Muriel’s mother, Betty, doesn’t have a huge role, but Jeanie Drynan does make her tragically sympathetic, and Rachael Griffiths is easily the best part of the movie as Muriel’s best friend. Through her energized performance, strong line readings, and a storyline that seems pretty mean-spirited but ends on such a positive uplifting note that you can’t help but feel good, she could’ve easily carried this movie on her own.

The most iconic element of this film is its frequent usage of ABBA. With the lead being obsessed with the band, the film was granted permission to use their music only two weeks before they started filming (if they declined, Muriel would’ve been obsessed with The Village People instead), and while this runs the risk of quickly growing tiring, it strangely fits really nicely with this atmosphere and story (it arguably uses it better than Mamma Mia does). ABBA has a very 80s enthusiastic party flavor that works well in this more street-level feature, and it helps liven up certain scenes as well as gives a unique sound to the overall picture (an orchestral version of Dancing Queen handled by composer, Peter Best, actually sounds really nice).

The way the movie looks feels appropriately Australian, and each of these globally-popular Australian films helped form a specific identity for how Australia would be portrayed in pop culture; the homes are cluttered and feel a little cramped, the lighting is more dimmed and natural, there’s a lot of bushland and foliage even within a city landscape, and the clothing has a beach-casual feel that would be fitting for a more sweltering location. Since it’s a movie that came from a country that was slowly building its own film identity, it feels it uses this cheaper look to its advantage and keeps things very chill and low key, which makes the audience more willing to go along with whatever happens in the story. Despite this, it still feels decently cinematic thanks to some nice shots by cinematographer, Martin McGrath, who shows off these locations in a full, but still small-scale manner. There are even a few edits by Jill Bilcock that once again adds to the spunkier vibe of the film that, while not hilarious, keeps things innocently jovial.

Muriel’s Wedding captivated viewers on their first and subsequent watches, remains a staple of Australian cinema, and even spawned into other areas like its own musical in 2016, so the hype definitely wasn’t just a lucky break. Strangely, the film on its own doesn’t carry much that would explain that kind of uproarious praise, with a story that is fairly lukewarm and predictable, characters that are pretty wacky and not the most likeable, and a script that isn’t the cleverest or even most humorous. However, it feels about as perfectly constructed as an idea of its calibre can be delivered, leaving the final product as not a magnificent surprise, but as a charitably pleasant experience that feels well-oiled in all the right places. The directing does a lot of heavy lifting for its content, the acting is just the right amount of over-the-top, and the visuals and atmosphere are certainly on the cheaper side but have enough personality and energy to keep things entertaining. It’ll be a cult favorite for years to come, and it feels like it has earned that title well enough.