Midweek Mention... Muriel's Wedding

Muriels Wedding

Dan: Hello How are you doing here This is the bad dads film podcast and we're about to review a film that I forgot to watch Muriel's wedding but I have seen it before So what did you think is a classic isn't it was waiting Did it still make you laugh Did it make you laugh the first time

Reegs: probably not the first time but I think I was way too young but actually watching it this time Yeah absolutely creased a few times Yeah yeah yeah

Dan: Classic

Sidey: I had not seen it until The other day when I watched it

Dan: Really Okay Just one of

Sidey: something about it either just that it was Australian or I kept seeing that clip with a sister kept saying you were terrible Muriel what the fuck I'm not fucking know

Reegs: They do a decent job of making Australians look like human beings in this though

Pete: Yeah Yeah It was a misrepresentation of Australians

Sidey: know that the old man was how I imagined or

Pete: Oh yeah absolutely Yeah

Dan: battler battling all my life Ah he's he's just absolutely

Pete: Actually

Dan: He's the one thing that I remember more than anything though is when they're in the big Auditorium hall or wherever you know they'll all go in there and play cards or whatever

Sidey: he's

Dan: they're doing And he's just retelling stories of how he's been battling all his life You know that's me build the battler That's what they call anything And nobody calls him that No it's just him He's just only but it's filled with these kinds of characters all throughout this film and I I really really enjoyed it when I watched it I just forgot this time

Reegs: So it's Toni Collette which I didn't even realize until the end credits that it was her And I really like her She's absolutely brilliant

Pete: I remember watching this the first time round and being like mildly entertained and amused And then years later I think the next thing I saw Erin was maybe about a boy where she's really like irritate She's like a really whiny mum She's like the main kids mom isn't she but she looked totally different by then And actually she's like she's gotten quite a bit hotter as she's gotten older

Reegs: Yeah yeah yeah I agree She plays Mirial Heslop who is a kind of social misfit basically is probably the way to describe it

Sidey: all the kids in the family are I think I don't know if it's because the old man was such a horrible bully to them

Pete: Yes it is It has to be because yeah I mean everyone

Reegs: the whole way through And even when you get the obvious kind of character redemption at the end I still want it to kick him in the

Sidey: Oh no there was no redemption for him He was a piece of

Reegs: Yeah

Pete: Yeah I don't think he was redeemed in any way Cause he's still a total deck And in the end about like he's even like questioning why she burned the law and after his his wife or ex-wife I guess at that time has committed suicide And he's still like moaning about the fact that she burned the lawn He never really apologizes or redeemed himself in any way shape or form And everyone in that family is Clearly like deeply affected by how much of a balance Yeah

Reegs: he was a proper bad dad she Mirial is friends with a bunch of twats basically a really shallow superficial Mean girls Yeah Yeah absolutely And she listens to her but I hate Abba worse than David Bowie For

Sidey: right up

Reegs: really really hate Abba All

Pete: Hang on I can't believe you've mentioned Abba and David Bowie in the same sentence That's

Reegs: I'm just trolling and you with that bit But

Pete: Okay I'll

Dan: hello Cabernet They've got a few good tracks I mean I'm not buying her

Sidey: I fucking detest them but in this

Pete: I really liked the routine

Reegs: no I hated pretty much except for the dance that they did

Pete: dance was excellent It was excellent

Reegs: of the Aborigines just because I hate Abbott so much which is a lot for me to get past but she loves Abba and she's dreaming eventually effectively of trying to get out of Porpoise spirit

Pete: Yeah Abbott's effectively like her comfort blanket isn't it it's like you know because she references it when she eventually moves down to Sydney later on that she she didn't even listen to Abba anymore It was like her go-to thing when she was yeah Just was struggling with her herself and everything around her

Reegs: And she's basically constantly got this web of people around her telling her that she shit all the time Right You know you're just rubbish no matter what you I mean it even starts in the middle of she catches a bouquet and they're like Oh we need to throw it again Cause Miriam

Pete: yeah And then and then the girl cries because she's been dumped and they all still blame Muriel for for making that girl upset even though that's yeah It's just horribly unfair All of it

Reegs: There's a sort of sub plot where one of the mean girls boyfriend now husband is cheating

Pete: Yeah

Sidey: At the wedding It just got squished

Reegs: Yeah Cause she says she's she says they don't sleep together She only sucks him off out of respect For me It's fucking amazing

Sidey: the way she discovers the affair is that he had lipstick on his Dick Yeah

Reegs: yeah yeah

Sidey: Mural effectively not a factory Muriel categorically embezzles a load of money off a mother She writes her check for cash and she she next to the lot and and scones

Pete: 12 grand later

Sidey: kind of like an 18th day So a holiday which is where she does this ABA routine with a friend that she connects with Yeah

Reegs: who is Rhonda

Sidey: Well she dead spit for Juliette Lewis

Pete: Hi my name is Rachel Griffiths

Reegs: Okay I didn't do any like

Pete: I I did a little bit I dunno why I heard names Apparently she then went on to star in a couple more films with Tony Colette after that So I think that they had quite a bit of chemistry going on I don't think she made it as big obviously as Toni Collette but that was her name

Dan: Well am I right in thinking she'd won an Oscar

Pete: Hey Rachel Griffiths no

Reegs: for hereditary

Dan: I'm not

Pete: sure who Tony color she was nominated I think for 6 cents she was nominated as maybe best actress or something

Dan: was a debut she's turned into a hell of an actress Like she's not in actually enough stuff I think you

Reegs: we watched a terrific Netflix series called unbelievable which is about Girl who accuses somebody of rape and then retracts the rape story and she plays the detective in it And she's wonderful in that as well I think she kind of like her career seems to have been quite big at the start and then dipped and then just had a big resurgence recently in the last few years

Pete: But I think it was the thing is that I didn't actually do any background on was was whether how big a hit this was outside of Australia say immediately did it did it get a bit of a cult following fair

Dan: well this was this was the thing I think it was one of those A little bit like the full Monte I think it just came out of nowhere and it it kind of did well you know it w it wasn't supposed to do that well and I think it did turn into more of a cult following I mean for one he was pretty big all over the world but this was an export from Australia at the time and you know launched the career of Toni Collette If if nothing else in it You get these little gems now and again that come out of Australia

Pete: Right

Dan: there they've got a really good film industry over there and every now there's another one there They do comedy Well they do you know I mean probably because of the British influence they were like that the Aussies

Reegs: Rhonda is kindness of the person that Merial's sort of aspires to be in many ways this friend that she meets from high school Cause she just shuts down her obnoxious mates straight away and those sorts of things and they become good mates And then she she changes her name to Mario and then kind of gets a semi boyfriend Wow

Pete: Oh that scene that scene is fucking incredible because it's it's it's brilliant and you're enjoying it And then it's horrific at by the end of

Reegs: So she brings back this guy called Bryce

Sidey: when she walked into the room I hadn't really clocked before I said to Mrs Fucking outfit she's got this old leather thing and it's just doesn't fit very well It's full of zips which become quite important in the scene because they're starting to I think she's holding a cup of tea the whole time Isn't she And he's getting all freaky and Thinks he's unzipping her clothes but young zips the beanbag

Pete: but she's like giggling the whole time Yeah

Reegs: having a like an emotional breakdown because his big moment is going really really wrong And then suddenly the two dudes from next door completely butt-naked run into the room Yeah Yeah It's a very funny scene

Pete: with delight as the decks are obviously swinging about

Sidey: As you're loling all these decks and the hilarity of it all it very quickly Yeah too Rhonda falls over and says she can't

Reegs: it was so bizarre wasn't it And I guess that's the way things can be Like she kind of She's standing by the wall

Pete: Yeah She just collapses I remember w I dunno exactly when I watched this film the first time round but it probably would have been at least 20 years ago but I remember being I remembered that that part of it I remember it being really jarring because you've gone from the you know the hilarity of this like almost like slapstick sex scene to yeah Something fucking hideous

Reegs: tragic because

Pete: Becoming paralyzed

Reegs: got cancer

Dan: isn't it kind of a director's trick though We've seen in other things like

Reegs: parasite where you have the extreme emotions Yes

Dan: flips it right over And it really just as you say Georgia it jolts you into watching the story or pay more attention just for that split

Pete: second Yeah Almost to the point where you sort of feel guilty for having laughed about what had happened just before it And then and then you forget about That that part of the scene and it and it stays with you like the

Reegs: it's that proper absurdity of life isn't it That you can go from these ridiculous Mo highs and lows so she is eventually left permanently unable to walk isn't she It does it cause there's some suggestion it's gonna Get

Sidey: well she has the initial operation which goes well and she's there trying to rehab which is obviously very frustrating for her and neural makes this promise sort of forced to make this promise that we will never go back to up a spit You don't want to go back to that old shitty life and that you know crappy little town but things can't stay the same forever

Reegs: we should probably mention that she's been stringing Rhonda along the whole time by saying that she's getting married to this

Sidey: Well she's got this

Reegs: Tim Simms

Pete: she's

Sidey: She's got a scrapbook and she goes around all the different wedding dress shops trying on dresses And she keeps all these Polaroids which one defines and then it's the truth owls

Reegs: but then she's kind of desperate not to She's desperate to just have this wedding So she ends up I kinda missed how this happened but she's introduced to a South African

Pete: She she answers a classified

Reegs: Oh is it an ad Is it okay Yeah

Pete: She just answers a classified too I didn't I don't know if it specifically said about

Sidey: again the advert but when she goes and meets the guy at the pool I thought it was gonna be the coach at first Cause he was cause he was another guy just showed like Oh man you know but she's sort of introduced to this Seth African swimmer And she's told explicitly that it's going to be this deal but you can tell in her head she's like I'm getting married I'm getting

Reegs: I just I'm getting married Yeah

Pete: think I think

Reegs: Eight still counts

Pete: point is is and it comes out later on in the film is that you know the guy is seeing it as a means to an end It's it's a way of him being able to compete in the Olympics And she is seeing it as a means to an end And the fact that she's going to get her wedding and that's all she cares about as well So she uses him as much as As he uses her albeit she's far more attracted in the beginning to him

Sidey: the look on his face

Pete: He keeps going back to so w w w what about the blonde what about the brunette

Dan: anyone

Reegs: So they do end up having a wedding

Sidey: Yeah you get the guy in the crowd and the crowd in the congregation wherever you call it who was the from the sex scene and he's really cut off about it And then it was really tragic because her mother didn't make it on time because they were separated when they the parents did not separate And she didn't sort of really sad where she's sort of crying because she didn't make it sick Get this sort of or bit fake wedding

Reegs: The mother is kind of this put upon Punch bag for the dad Who's cheating on

Pete: She's a victim of of hideously emotional abuse

Sidey: She reminded me of the mum in American beauty Do you remember her

Reegs: Yeah Oh really Well the real estate agent

Sidey: the next door neighbors when the Nazi collector and she said sorry about the mess and she's she's a victim of that sort of thing

Reegs: Yeah yeah yeah her story is is deeply deeply tragic and quite effecting to everybody except her husband she committed suicide

Pete: Yeah it's a quote I think it's quite strong performance from her because she you you utterly believe that she is this kind of on the face of it quite a sort of you know very weak and meek character but then you understand as the film goes on longer why she is like that But I I can't really I never seen her in anything else but I can't imagine her as anything else because she plays that so well

Reegs: Yeah she's she's terrific the effect of the suicide on Muriel Mariel I forget who she is at this point

Sidey: goes back now to being she accepts the reality of and they have the funeral and there then She does eventually because I don't think she slept with the swimmer until this point And she everything's all it comes a bit clearer to her and she sort of grows up in a way out of this fantasy of you know I don't want to be with you you know this isn't real We need to do our own thing And I personally really enjoyed that about the film of her her journey and and actually coming through it or when I Dodged this or is ago I just thought it was going to be more sort of flimsy sort of some check flick shit about gay marriage I didn't I didn't expect all the subplots and all the different stuff going on

Reegs: it's it's it's profound really And

Dan: and things they're well written Well well acted as you said not just the Tony Collette but

Pete: whole

Dan: of of really strong performances

Reegs: Yeah There is And it's and it's so relatable I mean just because it's about a woman who's obsessed by weddings doesn't mean that you do you know that you don't relate to Mirial So

Dan: it's anybody that's

Sidey: I thought you said you relate to the old man

Dan: but there's so many different characters you know somebody like that or a little tinge of that character or you know remind you of someone So there's a lot to hold onto in this film I think to

Pete: The measure of how good a film is is the fact that whenever it was what was it originally 94 on goodness

Reegs: I think it was it a nice four

Pete: 94

Sidey: way out of your depth here

Pete: and I haven't even made any notes yeah so it's four but how it's how it's written and how like the character portrayals and everything like that the plot and the cast and everything So then years later for me as a 42 year old man and this this film shouldn't necessarily be the sorts of sort of thing that would appeal to me For me to then watch it and enjoy it and and be kind of you know I laughed when I laughed with them and at some of the scenes I know it was emotional as well It is it was quite hard hitting And you know the with that we've already touched upon Rhonda with the with the cancer and the parallel parallelization and the mum dying and so on It was a really really enjoyable film So Fritz Kind of stand up all those

Reegs: I don't know I was stuck there I was like

Pete: how realization is it's definitely a word Yeah Yeah We're letting it in but yeah it's it's it's still kind of be I dunno so so entertaining and and moving all those years later too I'm not I don't think I'm that type the target audience that they had in mind when they were putting this together necessarily but Yeah definitely resonated with me

Sidey: It's also one of Ridley Scott's favorite films

Reegs: Is it Well I say good choice Hedley

Dan: is is kind of target audience for you Would you thinking

Pete: wow here we go And

Dan: centipede that kind of thing what what were they thinking when they're thinking

Reegs: we've got we've got it's pizza nomination this week and he's got something lined up So we're going to and it's the first one where society hasn't had to tell him what to do

Pete: Yeah There was less there's less handholding this week Yeah

Dan: this is you

Reegs: I say get you know let's build the excitement Dan

Sidey: that is going to be saying the money story of this budget was 9 million So it was quite a lot for this for for a kind of unknown kind of thing

Reegs: I would think you would have to spend quite a lot to market it It didn't it neither looked expensive nor cheap As a as a movie I mean it seems very dated but a lot of that was the point

Sidey: yeah The outfits the eighties sort of vibe eighties 89 sort of thing

Reegs: So from that perspective it didn't I reckon they had to probably spend a lot to market it overseas

Sidey: Yeah So not many budget What do you reckon Oh yeah

Dan: this was this was a worldwide hit They started working That's done 10 times now

Sidey: 54 mil which I thought it was gonna be more than that to be honest with you Cause I I just remember it being massive at the time because there was this there was like four weddings and a funeral at this time And It was the sort of thing that was really popular but still you know good return It's decent

Pete: Yeah

Dan: and I think it's one of those films that film shouldn't just be about how much money they make You know what I mean We've we've all seen films where They've they've cost a lot to make or they've cost a little to it to make but the film is there you know that that should stand alone and and the money Okay Depends if it's used well to get the point across otherwise it is just a ridicule thing You spent 200 million and it

Sidey: well sometimes things just don't find an audience at first you know Shawshank was a massive flop and they found who it was later

Reegs: I absolutely love cloud Atlas So I don't know whether any of you have seen that

Pete: cloud Atlas

Reegs: fortune and nobody's have you seen it

Pete: Seen it and I loved it And the only reason it's I almost it Because I think it got quite sort of critically panned

Reegs: got

Pete: So I've always been I've always felt like I can't bring it up here Cause Sidey will you know he just follows the masses You've never heard of cloud Atlas I think it's fucking

Reegs: All right Okay Well I'll choose it one day Okay

Dan: Berto Echo The

Reegs: David Nichols or somebody is the author but the books really good as well

Pete: we should not talk about

Reegs: we'll talk about another time but yeah Okay

Sidey: Well Tony Collette I thought that she was just there half day but now she gained 40 pounds in seven weeks for this role Wow That's I could do that either for

Dan: Isn't it I'll tell you I

Reegs: I did that without even being paid to be in a

Pete: I I have done it in the last seven weeks

Dan: the other way though I just can't seem

Pete: to I must be a terrible cross to bear

Sidey: She had a special dietician so maybe that's what you need

Dan: where I'd

Pete: thinking Yeah Yeah But there are other Hollywood diets that can go the other way So I'm sure she recovered So I was quite intrigued first and foremost by the name of the is it the S is it writer director

Sidey: PJ

Pete: Yeah And his first name is Paul So first of all this is this his name was Paul Hogan who's the only other famous person to come out of Australia Yeah Paul Paul Hogan and nothing he did was as funny as this film

Reegs: 80% of the population in Australia is called Paul Hogan So

Dan: the other is called Sheila Yeah Yeah

Pete: That's a that's an interest That's a fact I thought I

Reegs: well in Australia so I should probably yeah you're great We love you

Pete: The most the most intriguing facts about this So you've got a look of knowing her side Okay Is the P J Hogan did you say PJ Hogan the entire story is based on his actual sister

Sidey: Oh I did nice it's Yeah

Dan: Cheers

Pete: Yeah she she didn't have an obsession with weddings or anything like that but she did all of the stuff with embezzling the money and going to using it to go on a party holiday and then moving to Sydney And all of that is absolutely true That's yeah That's what his sister actually did And Apparently for years it caught it a bit caused a bit of friction in the family She didn't want to be but now

Dan: until Muriel's wedding was a massive

Pete: exactly right

Reegs: yeah yeah

Pete: now apparently she freely admits that she is Miriam

Reegs: I think the measure of how good this is is that clearly it connected with four 40 something men Yeah

Dan: 20 odd years after I made it for clearly not us

Pete: Yeah