Muriel’s Wedding is the anti-romcom

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

I don’t usually like movies in the “Rom-Com” genre, but friends told me that Muriel’s Wedding was good, so I got it from Netflix. This movie is not really a rom-com, it’s more a sober examination of longing and desperation. Muriel hates herself and lies to everyone, even her best friend. She lies to create the illusion that she is the person she wants to be. Her father is a politician and her father also lies a great deal. Her father is wholly self-centered and only cares about his image, the public illusion he’s built of himself.

Most rom-coms tend to be sugary and full of cliches. This ones goes is pleasantly original. The American rom-coms tend to be almost all awful, but this one is out of Australia, so perhaps that helped it.

Also, this is, and will probably always be, my favorite performance by Toni Collette.

Post external references

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    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110598/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
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