Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2087 in VHS
• Released on: 1996-03-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ever since the late 1970s when the Australian New Wave was in full surge, Down Under directors have delivered movies that often hit you like news from another planet. Offbeat characters, weird narrative twists and a tart mixture of laughs and catastrophe--this is the juice that fuels such flicks as Proof, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom, Heavenly Creatures and, most certainly, Muriel's Wedding. Directed by PJ Hogan (who would go on to helm the Hollywood hit My Best Friend's Wedding), this little gem follows tradition by featuring an authentic misfit: Muriel (Toni Collette), a great, overweight horse of a girl obsessed with getting married and the music of ABBA. Appropriately, we first meet Muriel at a wedding, all trussed up in a leopardskin number she's boosted for the occasion. When her snotty peers insist that she give up the bridal bouquet to someone who might actually get hitched, when one of the guests turns out to be a clerk in the very store where Muriel ripped off her outfit, you've just got to laugh, she's such an unmitigated mess. A loser, her philandering politician father (Bill Hunter) calls her--along with his doormat wife and his other couch-potato offspring. But this movie's no exercise in geek-bashing. As Muriel takes up with feisty Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths) and moves from Porpoise Spit to the big city, her good-hearted grin and zest for life draw us in despite hilarious gaffes and mishaps. (Making out with a boy for the first time, Muriel suddenly finds herself awash in styrofoam: the oaf has unzipped the beanbag chair instead of her skin-tight leather pants.) Muriel's Wedding covers territory Hollywood would banish from a comedy--Rhonda's cancer, the suicide of Muriel's mother, a marriage of convenience to an arrogant athlete--yet, like its heroine, it never loses its sense of humour, its will to move on to whatever good thing might happen next. Everyone in the idiosyncratic cast is terrific, but it's Toni Collette's Dancing Queen who makes Muriel's Wedding a cinematic celebration you won't forget. --Kathleen Murphy

Synopsis
The twin obsessions, ABBA and marriage are the driving force behind Muriel Heslop's quest for happiness - small town Australia cannot stem her ambition - Sydney calls...

Customer Reviews

The worst film ever made
I cannot believe that this film was actually made and people paid money to see it. This is my alltime worst film and the only reason I haven't reviewed it until now was because I was trying to sell a copy I had. A copy that I was duped into buying because it said "funniest comedy of the year" on the back. I can only assume it was talking about the year of the great depression!
The only reason I have given this one star is because it is impossible not to. If you have not already seen this film, count yourself as blessed.

Talk About Getting Your Own Back!
It's only recently that i've seen Muriel's wedding, and i loved it to bits from start to finish. Its basically about a misfit Abba loving geek in her twenties that is going nowhere in life, but dreams of getting married one day, her popular friends have dumped her and it seems it's over for her until she meets Rhonda, and it takes off from there, they soon become best friends and find that they both have plenty in common, but the fun doesn't last long, Rhonda gets confined to a wheelchair due to the discovery that she has cancer, but things are still looking up for Muriel as she will soon be having a `fake' marriage to help a world champion, super fit swimmer win. It looks like her prayers have been answered (obviously not for him who is less than keen!). The wedding itself is really a dream come true for Muriel, the popular friends that pushed her away became her bridesmaids, there was tons of press attention, beautiful dress, there was just one person who wasn't happy, understandably that was Rhonda. So after the wedding Muriel divorces the swimmer that now generally wants to be with her, Muriel's dad announces he wants to divorce her mother, her mother later takes an overdose of pills and dies, the dad realises how much he actually needed her, but the final conclusion of the story is when Muriel visits Rhonda again and they both decide they will leave the city again away from their parents, as they did prior to the marriage, and before Rhonda discovered she had cancer. Really really excellent film, best film I've seen in ages. There's hope for the geeks yet! In my opinion, this film is totally unmissable and a true gem.

The 90's
I don't want to repeat what had already been written, but this quite simply is one of the greatest movies of the 90's. Watch it. Own it.