And that dream is to get married, well she does not really want to get married. However, she wants to have a wedding and wear a gorgeous white dress! What woman doesn't? But there's a deeper meaning behind her desire to wed. 22 year old Muriel who leaves in Porpoise Spit in Australia, she is lost in the world after high school, she does not know her place or has any real goals. She spends her time listening to 70s Abba music and dreaming of the one goal she does have... her wedding day... but she's never been in love however desperately wants love from those around her.Muriel and her sister are told to be worthless by their father, a councilor in Porpoise Spit, who wants to see them achieve greater things for themselves. However, he doesn't know the weight of those words, especially the effect it has on Muriel's self esteem. She is shy natured and thinks poorly of herself. You can see this come out later in the film when she changes her name to "Mariel" and says "she never wants to be Muriel again." because she thinks she's a loser.Muriel is also rejected from being part of a group of popular girls that went to her high school, she is called "embarrassing and fat." and she tells them that she'll try to be like them, but they reject her suggesting that she'll never change and regardless will still be who she is... and this is the underlying theme to the movie.Muriel wants acceptance and love from everybody however does not love and accept herself, until she meets Nicole on a holiday in which paid for by stealing money from her parents. Nicole is a friend she has always desired, who accepts and loves her for who she is and also enjoys Abba! Her confidence boosts after her Holiday. To avoid the consequence of stealing money she moves in with Nicole and her parents assume her missing and want her to come home.Nicole sadly becomes ill and needs Muriel's assistance all the time. Which Muriel does for her however here is still a part of Muriel that is lost and unfulfilled and she believes this will be solved through having a wedding of her own. She abandons her friend and searches through the ads for men who want to find women to marry.She meets a man who only wants to marry to keep up his reputation, he is quite stuck up and even mean to Muriel, but it doesn't bother her because it is about her fulfilling her dream and not love.On her wedding day, she walks down the isle with a beautiful and elegant wedding dress with the biggest grin on her face, however the camera pans across the people at her wedding, who do not seem happy for her at all, their faces are bitter or of people who do not care, except for the popular girls, who now want her back as a friend.Soon after she's married, she realizes that she has been denying herself that truth and she cannot go on living a lie. So she leaves her husband. Muriel realizes that no one was happy for her because her happiness does not depend on others, she does not need people to love and accept her but she needs to do so for herself and this is a really beautiful character change, the film ends with Muriel apologizing to Nicole and happy as just herself and where she is in life and its heart warming! and it's great underlying message in which this film has.Toni Collette is a brilliant actress, I'm convinced even more so after watching this film. Her performance the way she delivers Muriel's expressions and nature makes the character seem like a very real person! You can tell she really put her heart and soul into this performance and that's what makes a great actor.I would very much recommend this to anyone who loves movies.

This is truly a great Australian film, and still holds up after all these years. The film has always hit a nerve with me in terms of the Heslop's family dynamics (Mum, make Dad a cup of tea!). I can only speak for myself but I grew up in Queensland around the same time (I am aware this was made in New South Wales) and my experience with my family definitely resonates with that of Muriel's with her family. I really thought at the time this came out that this type of family dysfunction was 'an Aussie thing', but I know better than that now that I am older and wiser. I've never thought of this as a comedy although it has some very funny moments. Even now, I have to be in the mood for Muriel's Wedding due to it's brutally harsh treatment of it's characters. The film is vicious and unrelenting and has made me cry more than once. But it's also a cathartic experience, about a person with flaws like all of us, who is trying to find her own identity, and, despite what she has been conditioned to believe, that she is worthy.

A plain and unpopular young woman tries to better her life. It starts off as a rather clichéd comedy with cardboard characters, but gets better as it goes along. Murial's family members are so blandly drawn that they may as well be cartoon characters. Playing the father, Hunter's accent is so thick that it's hard for those with non-Australian ears to make out 90 percent of what he is saying. Fortunately, most of the focus is on Murial and she makes the film worth watching. In her first big role, Collette is wonderful as the social misfit who continues to maintain a zest for life despite facing rejection and tragedy.

Muriel (Toni Collette) is an overweight unattractive Australian girl who loves ABBA music. She hangs around with a bunch of attractive but vicious women who tell her off every chance they get. She then meets easy-going, friendly Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths) and her life begins to change.SPOILERS!!!!! Sounds like a feel-good movie--right? WRONG! This has Muriel and some likable characters go through some incredibly horrible things again and again. For instance: Rhonda is very sexually active and (for no good reason) is crippled accidentally halfway through. Why? Because she happens to enjoy sex? Muriel's mother is treated by her husband like dirt...and she takes it. Muriel's friends have got to be the most vicious group of women I've EVER seen in any movie. Muriel meets a sweet guy who really likes her--but she dumps him to marry an attractive but empty-headed jock. That's only a few things. Again and again we're hit over the head with these depressing story turns. Seriously--what's the reason? The few good moments were blotted out by the negativity. After this was over I was utterly depressed and hated the movie. This only gets a two for the acting (Collette and Griffiths are great) and the ABBA music. But this is a seriously depressing, negative film.