It was the little Australian film that could. In 1994, writer-director P.J. Hogan crafted a quirky comedy-drama about a lost soul with a rich fantasy life who escapes her unfortunately named beach town, heads to the big city, and finds everything she never knew she wanted. Muriel's Wedding is that rare treasure that seemed to burst out of nowhere to become a worldwide hit, in the process making stars out of two previously unknown actresses, Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths. Made for just $9 million, the movie has grossed nearly $58 million to date and has secured its spot as one of the most-loved films of the '90s. Hogan created a playground of a movie and filled it with the most unconventional and outlandish characters, including a gaggle of mean girls, a family of aimless nitwits, an adulterous makeup saleswoman, and a dreamy swimmer looking for a ticket to citizenship. But it's the relationship between the film's lead female characters, Muriel (Collette) and Rhonda (Griffiths), that glues all the chaos together and gives the film its heart.

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Muriel Wants to be Married

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Muriel Heslop is a high school dropout living in the seaside village of Porpoise Spit on the Gold Coast. When not getting arrested for shoplifting or being ostracized by the "cool" girls in town, she spends her days listening to ABBA songs and fantasizing about the two things she wants in life - a fabulous wedding dress and a husband, in that order. At least that's what she thinks she wants. Muriel's worldview is based solely on what she sees in the bridal magazines she browses and the music she listens to, and although she's a witness to her parents' dysfunctional marriage and her disordered home life, she aspires to be a blushing bride.

It's not that Muriel is really looking for Mr. Right, but maybe if she gets a really nice wedding gown, she'll get a really nice life, too. At least that's what Modern Bride magazine tells her. Muriel has a strained relationship with the only man in her life, her father, who never fails to remind her that she's "an absolute disgrace," but she's too entrenched in her illusory world to realize that a man isn't going to rescue her from her directionless life. Writer-director Hogan lays the groundwork for the movie's theme, leading audiences to believe they're about to watch a comedy about the awkward girl meeting the man of her dreams. Turns out, it's not about Muriel meeting a man that saves her from herself - it's about Muriel meeting Rhonda.

Muriel Meets Rhonda

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When Muriel embezzles money from the makeup sales business owned by her father's mistress, she high-tails it to Hibiscus Island, where she intends to ingratiate herself with the popular girls' clique from Porpoise Spit who are enjoying a holiday there together. Not surprisingly, the mean girls shun her, leaving Muriel as alone on vacation as she is in her bedroom at home. Enter Rhonda Epinstock, a former classmate and fellow dropout who happens to be on vacation at the same resort and who recognizes Muriel from their high school days. Rebellious, outspoken, and without a single filter from her brain to her mouth, Rhonda is the spark plug that's been missing from Muriel's engine.

It's at this point that Muriel's Wedding focuses on the development of the friendship between Muriel and Rhonda. The two form an almost immediate bond, and together, they deflate the mean girls when Rhonda drops a bombshell about the cheating ways of one of their husbands. Feeling safer and not afraid to show her vulnerability, Muriel opens up to Rhonda about how she views herself. "Sometimes I think I'm nothing. Useless," she tells Rhonda. And for the first time, Muriel hears Rhonda tell her something about herself she's never heard from another person. "You're not nothing, Muriel. You're amazing." The validation Muriel never got from her father finally comes from a new friend, and it's like Muriel's just been given a pair of wings from an angel. She's ready to fly.

Muriel and Rhonda Take Sydney by Storm

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And fly she does. Before the Porpoise Spit police can get to her for that little embezzlement issue, Muriel takes off and joins Rhonda in Sydney. Energized and renewed, she even decides to change her name to "Mariel." Her newfound self-esteem attracts the attention of a shy customer at the video store where she works, and while flattered by his attention, she's more interested in hanging out with Rhonda and having a good time. Gone are the days when Muriel...er...Mariel would sit alone in her room, obsessed with becoming a bride. She's got everything she needs in her friendship with Rhonda, the one person in her life who lifts her up.

The friendship between Muriel and Rhonda takes a dramatic shift, however, when Rhonda is diagnosed with cancer and loses the ability to walk. Now Muriel is the one who must lift up Rhonda, literally and figuratively. Despondent and without hope, Rhonda all but gives up on living, and now it's Muriel's turn to let know Rhonda know her own worth. "Since I met you and moved to Sydney," Muriel tells her, "I haven't listened to one ABBA song. That's because my life's as good as an ABBA song. It's as good as 'Dancing Queen.'" Muriel must now become an adult, but without Rhonda as her pillar of strength and support, Muriel begins sliding into her old ways. Perhaps out of a need to provide financially for Rhonda, but more likely as a way to escape her new responsibilities as a caregiver, Muriel answers an ad in the newspaper that offers $10,000 to a woman who will marry a man so he can get Australian citizenship.

Much to Muriel's delight, that man turns out to be a stunning - and rich - South African Olympic swimmer named David Van Arkle (Daniel Lapaine). Though David isn't sure what to make of Muriel at first, she's all in on the scheme. David makes it clear that he's doing this only so he can get a gold medal swimming for Australia. "All my life, I've wanted to win," he tells her. "Me, too," Muriel replies. Muriel finally gets her dream wedding, complete with ABBA's "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" as her processional music, but her dream man isn't someone who loves her. He's a transaction, and once again, Muriel is unable to establish an authentic relationship with a man.

A Fractured Friendship and a Redemption

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Swept up in the pageantry of her marriage to a famous Olympian and all the publicity and fame that comes with it, Muriel abandons Rhonda. Before heading back to Porpoise Spit to be cared for by her mother, Rhonda tells Muriel, "You gave up on me. I needed help. I needed a friend." This is a sobering moment for Muriel because she finally sees how she's thrown away the one genuine relationship she's ever had for the chance to live out an empty fantasy. Muriel's loss is compounded when her mother passes away, leaving her alone and emotionally unsupported. This is her moment of reckoning. Knowing she can't continue a life of false pretense, she leaves David, telling him, "I thought I was a new person, but I'm not. I've told so many lies, one day, I won't know I'm doing it." Muriel takes off her wedding ring, symbolizing the end of her make-believe world and the beginning of the reality with which she must come to grips.

Returning to Porpoise Spit for her mother's funeral, Muriel finally confronts her father. "You owe us, dad. We're not useless. We never were," referring to her and her siblings. At this point, her father also comes to a moment of reckoning. "You reap what you sow," he tells her, knowing his foul-ups as a dad have left him forsaken by his own family. It's also time for Muriel to reap what she sowed with Rhonda, so she goes to Rhonda's home to beg for forgiveness and ask her to come back to Sydney. "What makes you think I'd go anywhere with you?" Rhonda asks with contempt. Muriel has only one simple response, and it's something it took her much too long to realize. "Because I'm your friend."

It's all Muriel ever needed to be happy. As she and Rhonda head off in a cab to the airport, bidding farewell to everything about Porpoise Spit that's held them back, audiences can see it's the genuine bond between these two women that will be the foundation for the adventures awaiting them back in the big city. Muriel's Wedding is a film that should be praised not only for its wonderful characters and touching script but for its celebration of two female characters who discover that all they've ever really needed is each other. Who needs weddings when you've got friends, anyway?