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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Muriel's Wedding

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 14 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: P.J. Hogan (also story)
Directed by: P.J. Hogan
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 10, 1995
DVD: April 3, 2001
Running Time: 106 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for sex-related dialogue and some sexuality
Starring Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Bill Hunter, Sophie Lee, Rosalind Hammond, Belinda Jarrett, and Pippa Grandison
No one ever paid much attention to Muriel (Collette) and her humdrum small-town life, so she and her best friend, Rhonda (Griffiths), decide to leave it behind and head for the big city ... where they end up having the exciting adventure of their lives! (Miramax)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: My Best Friend's Wedding Peter Pan
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Wickedly mocking but empathetic, able to laugh at its characters while paying attention to their sorrows, this subversive comedy about self-esteem resists the notion that films have to timidly remain within tidy genre rules.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
And the casting of minor characters (including Muriel's sister with the naughty-naughty smirk) is flawless.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
While Muriel's Wedding has its moments of exhilarating humor, it is, as often as not, downbeat and even mean-spirited.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A crowd pleaser that spices a tired formula with genuine feeling.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack
There's poignant drama in this brash, sometimes overstated film, and Muriel's transformation is truly touching.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
Muriel's Wedding runs into trouble when it looks for poignancy too openly, working better at giddy moments than in its occasional sad ones. Most of the time, Mr. Hogan keeps his story light and surprising.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Alison Macor
Thankfully there are no weight-loss montage sequences; what you see with Muriel is what you get, like it or not. This refusal to change or convert the main characters makes the film so appealing.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Most of the action is played for broad laughs, and Hogan demonstrates the ability to generate them, even if the humor is very base and often cruel, making fun of people's looks and ineptitude.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Watching this is a feature-length exercise in frustration - comedy that promises to be amusingly black stays uniformly grey; sentiment that looks to be credibly bittersweet winds up badly soured. We're constantly tantalized and perpetually disappointed, but don't despair - there's one terrific bonus...Toni Collette.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Michael Forstrom
Ultimately, the comedy here is grounded in self-hatred, hostility, and despair. Nearly everyone who wanders through this brash and deliberately tasteless film is stupid, ungainly, or grotesquely tragic. But this only heightens the pleasure during moments of delirious merriment.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The trouble with the movie is that there's nothing to Muriel but her false dreams: We never quite glimpse the woman they're hiding.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Hal Hinson
Hogan seems skittish about going all the way with the darker side of his material...It's a bright, buoyant comedy about a very sad young woman -- and, regrettably, the mix just doesn't work.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Oscillating back and forth between insulting its two central characters (Muriel and her dad) and showing they have hidden depths, this movie only shows true tact and understanding when it comes to flattering the audience; everyone on screen is strictly up for grabs.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Pat C. gave it an8:
A twisted version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding where petty motivations and an overabundance of amorality prompt both laughs and pity. Splendid portrayal by Colette of an ugly duckling who, in the process of transforming into a swan, finds her manic dysfunctional darkness and dishonesty resisting conversion to her new self-image. An exceptionally intelligent film brimming with authenticity, appealing both to the chick flick set and those who find that genre superficial.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
This film is hilarious, the acting is splendid, and the story has very deep moments. A nice satire on provincial life and its detriments. The sex scene is perhaps the best scene I've ever seen in a movie.
