One of Australia’s hit films of the 1990’s was Muriel’s Wedding.
Muriel, the main character, lives in the small coastal town Porpoise Spit. Muriel’s dad is a somewhat seedy town councillor who does all kinds of dodgy deals to promote development projects. But he’s not really promoting the town, he’s promoting himself. Bill’s whole sense of self respect and self importance come from his belief that he’s an important man about town. Why not only is he a central figure in the economic life of that sprawling metropolis Porpoise Spit, but he once even made it into State Parliament. By gee, he’s important.
Of course, the one big hindrance to Bill’s prestige is his family. His wife just doesn’t have the bubbling, outgoing pizzazz required of a political wife. And his kids, well they’re just a bunch of poorly educated, overweight, no hopers whose only purpose in life is to sponge of the generosity of their dad. They’ll never amount to anything, or so Bill has told them all his life. And surprise, surprise, Bill’s words come true.
So here we are at the wedding of one of Muriel’s closest friends. Her dad may not like her. But at least Muriel has her friends. Well, no, she doesn’t have them either. Where her dad feels valuable because he is an important man about town, Muriel’s friends feel important because they’re the life of every party. Slim, good looking and never without a boyfriend they’re the ultimate good time gals. What’s more they’re all either married or getting married. And in their minds and Muriel’s that makes them very important.
Muriel on the other hand is an embarrassment to them. She’s fat, she dresses poorly, and she’s never had a boyfriend. Her three gorgeous friends tolerate her, but only for so long. The most chilling moment of the movie comes when the three friends have gone on a holiday to Hibiscus Island without inviting Muriel. Muriel hears about it, steals some money from her dad, and surprises them by showing up at the resort. As they’re sitting around a table sipping cocktails the friends tell Muriel that they don’t want her as their friend – she’s fat, she wears ugly clothes and she has never had a boyfriend. She’s a nobody.
Muriel falls apart. She becomes a weeping, blubbering mess, but all her former friends care about is that she’s embarrassed them.
Muriel desperately wants to be important like her dad and her supposed friends. And she knows just one sure path to feeling important – a wedding. If only someone will marry her that will make her feel important. For one glorious day filled with church bells, flowing wedding dresses and a sumptuous wedding feast she’ll be the centre of attention. Everyone will fuss around her. Every eye will be fixed on her. Every comment will be about her. For that one glorious moment in time she’ll feel infinitely valuable. Muriel dreams of that day. She visits every bridal store she can find, concocting tales of about a non existent fiancé while trying on wedding dresses, creating a wedding scrapbook.
What Muriel needs is someone to marry. She finds him in the personal columns of the paper. He’s a South African swimmer who is desperate to compete at the Olympic games. Unfortunately for him, South Africa are still in the dark days of apartheid and banned from the Olympics. So he figures he’ll become an Australian citizen and compete for Australia. And to do that in a hurry he needs to get married to an Aussie girl. His family is very rich and they offer to pay $50,000 for someone who’ll live with him in a sham marriage until the Olympics are over. Muriel puts her hand up. Here’s her dream come true – not only will she be getting married, but she’ll be marrying a sportsman from a famous and wealthy family. It doesn’t matter that her fiancé despises her. All that matters is she’ll be walking down the aisle, the centre of attention, her face splashed all over the pages of the women’s magazines.
And so the wedding day arrives. All of a sudden she’s a somebody. So much a somebody that even her trendy friends in Porpoise Spit want to know her again. They become the bridesmaids. So much a somebody that even her father bristles with pride – after all he gets his photo in the paper too!
Now backtrack for a minute. Remember Hibiscus Island, where Muriel’s shallow friends finally tell her they don’t like her, they don’t want her to hang around with them anymore? On that same holiday Muriel meets Rhonda, someone who offers who genuine friendship. She actually likes Muriel as she is, not for the image she offers. They leave Porpoise Spit and move to Sydney. So throughout the whole time Muriel is hungering for importance by getting married here’s Rhonda who already thinks she’s important.
Rhonda has an accident which puts her in a wheelchair and the friendship with Muriel falls apart. Rhonda moves back to be with her mother at Porpoise Spit and Muriel fulfils her dream by marrying her disinterested fiance while having her barbie doll false-friends as bridesmaids.
The movie reaches its climax when Muriel renews her friendship with Rhonda. Finally Muriel realises what Rhonda has been showing her all along – that she’s valuable and important just for who she is. She doesn’t need to be considered important like her father, or beautiful like her shallow friends. She doesn’t even need to be married. She just needs to be herself. And so the movie closes with Muriel and Rhonda in a car leaving Porpoise Spit for a new life in Sydney. So Muriel leaves behind the sham marriage, the barbie doll friends, her morally bankrupt father, for through her friend Rhonda she has discovered herself.
The movie of course is about how and why we value ourselves. And gently running through the movie is the idea that true friendship is the path Muriel found to truly valuing herself, the liberating power of acceptance and friendship that Rhonda brought into her life.
Source: Scott Higgins
Applications: love, friendship, peer pressure, self-image, self-esteem,
self-worth, self-acceptance