Fantastic girly film "Muriel's Wedding" (Muriel's Wedding (DVD))

Member Name: Jcapulet

Product:	Muriel's Wedding (DVD)
Date:	01/12/08 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots

Disadvantages: none

This has got to be one of the most under-rated and under-viewed films ever !! Why haven't more people seen this film ? I'm ALWAYS recommending it to people who haven't seen it and it's a shame because it's a fab little feel good film !! If you love Mamma Mia and/or the likes of 'It could happen to you', other feel good films, then you'll probably like this !!
It's set in Australia and the wonderful and alo under-rated Coni Collette stars in the lead role as Muriel ( or Mariel as she later wants to be called ) daughter of local councillor Bill Hislop who has issues with his own ideas of his over-inflated self-importance, having an affair with Deidre, the glamourous other woman who you know will only stick around as long as the perks of being associated with a popular local man and also daughter of Betty, who seems distant and unfocused from the outset and lacks any self-esteem whatsoever. Muriel is also the sister of some of the laziest brothers and sisters you will ever see, but also suffer from low self-esteem dur to their father's constant high standards and put downs.
Muriel loves Abba more than anything and will spend hours and hours in her room just listening to Abba depending on her mood and when she's not hiding away, she's 'friends' and I use that term loosely with a group of local girls ( who don't have an ounce of loyalty or empathy between them ) who spend most of their time chasing men or trying to get rid of Muriel and the final straw is when they all go away together without Muriel. Muriel is devastated and uses a blank cheque from her father ( for the purpose of developing a career in selling beauty products ) to go to the same place as her 'friends'. This is where she meets Rhonda, the one friend who accepts Muriel for who she is and also has a love of Abba. She teaches Muriel to love herself more and invites her to live in Sydney with her and since Muriel is in deep trouble on arriving at home " You're terrible Muriel" !! LOL !! ) she decides to grab some clothes and head off to the city leaving everyone behind. Here she meets Brice who adores her and continues to adore her throughout the film, but tragedy strikes when Rhonda finds out that she has a tumour on her spine which causes her to be wheelbound. For a while Muriel helps where she can and they continue to live together in the city, but Muriel's obession with getting married takes over her life and she agrees to marry an over-seas born swimmer called David ( played by Daniel Lapaine ) so he can compete for Australia in the olympics. This means that Rhonda must return to home to live with her Mum as she cannot cope on her own and Muriel marries David and then becomes Mariel Heslop-Van Arckle. David treats their marriage as a purely arranged marriage, no contact, separate bedrooms etc and Muriel is still caught up in the whole romance of being married to such a good-looking guy. ( The wedding scene with her mother turning up and being ignored and the arrival of a heartbroken Brice is really sad. ) It's not long afterwards that Muriel receives the sad news that her Mum had died. Muriel is devastated and runs from the funeral out of shame at being reminded of her treatment of Mum at the wedding and all the trouble her Mum went through to see her get married. ) Whist outside the church David turns up and offers a shoulder to cry on, which leads to more and admits that although he doesn't love her she has grown on him since their wedding day. Muriel however realises that she doesn't love him either and was just caught up in the whole idea of marriage and the next morning after their only night as 'man and wife' Muriel returns home. The house is in disarray, Belinda ( Bill's mistress ) doesn't last long in the unglamourous surroundings of the family home and soon Muriel is off to the city again, only this time she makes sure that Rhonda is goes with her. Rhonda's unsure at first since she felt abandoned the first time but soon changes her mind when she realises that her 'pity' friends are smoothering her. So Rhonda and Muriel head back to the city, best of friends again.

A fantastic girly film to watch with some friends and a massive tub of icecream and maltesers. A word of warning though, you'll be trying to hunt out your Abba CD afterwards though !!

Summary: A fab feel good film, which is guaranteed to make you feel happy and sad at times!