GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

DVD and Video

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 



 

Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Muriel's Wedding
Miramax Films

Muriel's Wedding reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 63 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.3 out of 10
based on 14 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA 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)


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: P.J. Hogan (also story)  
DIRECTED BY: P.J. Hogan  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: April 3, 2001 
Video: October 8, 2002 
Theatrical: March 10, 1995 
RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

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...

100
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
88
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
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
High-energy comedy.
Read Full Review
75
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
75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A crowd pleaser that spices a tired formula with genuine feeling.
Read Full Review
75
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
70
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
67
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
60
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
50
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
50
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
42
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
40
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
40
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

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 3 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.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: iPhone 3G | Fantasy Football | Moneywatch | Antivirus Software | Recipes | E3 2009

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use