Not too long ago I watched for the first time the 1994 film Muriel's Wedding. This very early foray into what is now perhaps over-broadly labelled "chick-flick" romantic comedy was very well received at the time of its release and has gone on to become something of a cult classic, with legions of fans around the world still watching and remembering it fondly to this day.
Whilst I wasn't completely taken and overwhelmed with the film in its entirety, I did see some very good bits indeed, with some charming, amusing and classically endearing elements to enjoy.
Essentially the film revolves around Toni Colette in her early days as a film actress playing the titular character Muriel, whose driving ambition is to escape her humdrum, inauspicious and often embarrassing Australian suburb origins to live an exciting, successful, high-profile married life in the fast lane. The film basically chronicles her doing just that, at any cost (namely fraud, constant lies, a few awkward fumbles, a hefty amount of tragedy, a bit of light hearted tomfoolery, a degree of soul-searching and a whole lot of ABBA). Indeed, this was a film whose soundtrack quintessentially revolved around ABBA before it was popular, á la Mamma Mia.
Whilst to me there was nothing too wrong with the fairly pedestrian plot, and whilst there were not too many outright disappointments character-wise, the whole package was in danger of falling flat for me if it weren't for a few choice elements and some constant ideas that one had to cling to when watching.
Not that I'm an expert, but the whole thing seemed a bit like Neighbours on heat. And no, that's not just a dig at the Australians. In fact the Ozzie elements to me worked a lot of the time. The self-deprecating and often blunt uses of humour combined with the stunning scenery were such that the film just worked as an Australian piece. Set in America, Britain, or probably anywhere else I imagine the film would have been a total flop but in Australia they just about got away with it, sometimes to great results.
No, what made it a bit too soap-opera-esque to my mind was the very unsubtle and often poorly performed ways in which a vast array of elements and emotion were portrayed. On the one hand we had the typical 'clique girls' who were out to make everyone feel unpopular, then we had the horribly dysfunctional family, who from the very start all seem self-destructive, then we have a heady and often unbalanced mix of 90s Sydney high life. You may be thinking - so what? These elements can and in many other ventures have worked. And I would agree. But for me, unusually of a P.J Hogan piece, it was so utterly disjointed, even when supposedly all tied together by the central character Muriel. From her sofa sloth of a sister almost constantly and exclusively saying "you're terrible Muriel!" (funny the first time but quickly irritating) to a bad early attempt at Australia's Mean Girls, to an over postulating father figure whose attempts at grandeur and constant chest puffing were so clichéd that I couldn't differentiate between how annoying the character was or how annoying the portrayal was. Even the supposedly hard-hitting snippets seemed just horribly wooden in execution to me. Muriel's mother, whilst on some basic level endearing is supposed to be depressed and living in a loveless marriage, to the eventual point of suicide. This had the potential to be a beautiful and earth-shattering dramatic contrast to the more light-hearted elements of the film. But no, the actress playing her spent almost all of her time either staring wide-eyed into space, or else simpering down the phone to some member of her family. The direction of the character, as with most of the characters, was incredibly predictable, and when the short, sharp bursts of attempted raw emotion did come they seemed very jarring and often very out of place.
It sounds like I'm having a total downer on Muriel's Wedding, but not so. Whilst there were elements I didn't like, or just did not get, there were several core themes to the film throughout that did resonate, and were enough to salvage it for me watching, and better still they did make me understand this film's extended longevity and popularity.
Principally: Toni Colette is brilliant. Incredibly adorable, beautifully portrayed, and utterly endearing, Muriel is clearly the driving force of the film, but Toni Colette seems to effortlessly but constantly ram this point home so much that you cannot help but be uplifted by Muriel. And this is no small feat, as if you dissect it a bit, Muriel simplistically is a compulsive liar, a fraud, a cheat and a fantasist who for a severe chunk of the film fabricates a life that is not her own, disowns her family and turns her back on her friends for the sake of material gain and marriage to a South African Olympic swimmer. And yet, all these individual instances and traits are rolled up and hurled at the audience in this adorable, vulnerable and lovable package that is Toni Colette as Muriel from Porpoise Spit. What's more, her dynamic, unabashed and kick-ass chemistry with Rachel Griffiths' Rhonda Epinstall is sublime, and together they pretty much save the flick.
The chemistry-packed and joyous pairing of Colette and Griffiths drive the movie home, but what finishes it off (often encapsulated by the pair) is the film's completely unapologetic and hugely unsubtle heart and optimism. On the one hand it seems to say - it doesn't matter about Muriel's lying, cheating and fraud etc because she comes around in the end and drives off into the sunset with Rhonda. Yes, again this Neighbours knockoff of Thelma and Louise is a positive force, but again it is just the sheer joy with which it is done (often again embodied by Toni Colette as Muriel). It is infectious; whatever qualms you have about whichever elements of the rest of the film, the sheer heart, joy, sass and soul of Muriel's Wedding weirdly but wonderfully remains constant and impervious to all dourness. That I think is its best quality for me as a whole. Muriel's Wedding is not perfect in my view, far from it. But it does not give up in trying to put a smile on your face. And it does it with a pretty unique feel, unorthodox methods and a dazzlingly brilliant leading lady; what more could you want?
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