old.cbuzz.co.uk cBuzz Films - Muriel's Wedding

Muriel's Wedding

Certificate 15

running time 1hr 46 mins

Director P.J. Hogan

Muriel (Toni Collette) is fed up with being told that she is ugly and useless, so she decides to leave her home in the Austrailian town of 'Porpoise Spit' for a holiday of discovery. Whilst away she meets up with her bitchy 'friends' and an old friend from her high school, Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), who teaches Muriel to assert herself.

After exploiting her naive mothers chequebook, Muriel and Rhonda then set off for Sydney in search of fame and fortune. Whilst there, Muriel fantasizes about meeting Mr. Right and systematically visits every wedding outfitters to get polaroids of herself in various wedding dresses.

The plot then swerves in and out of various catastrophies to the sound of ABBA's greatest hits and, if you are watching with a critical eye, you could spot a hundred flaws and irrelevances which may leave some of the audience with a bad taste in their mouths. The film does not quite pull off the sentimental or 'meaningful' scenes and indeed, Muriels actual wedding is of little importance. However, Muriel's Wedding IS astoundingly good fun and well worth a visit to the cinema.

My advice would be to definitely go and see Muriel's Wedding but to ignore the faults and just let it flow across the screen. Enjoy the wonderful dance routines and watch out for the bean bag scene. Muriel's Wedding is continuing the recent trend of wonderful Australian films and deserves to be a huge success. I'm sure it will, very simple and excellent fun.(DJW)