I love this movie. It's about a neglected, outsider girl from a small town in coastal Australia who moves to Sydney to be somebody. It's all themed around ABBA.

We're not gonna talk about Muriel, she's a flamer.

Ha, just joking around... can you tell me more about the movie?

Muriel Heslop (the vibrant, energetic Toni Collette) is a hopeless romantic. She spends her days locked in her bedroom, listening to Abba songs and dreaming of the day she'll be able to put on a wedding dress. Her walls are covered with momentos of her two favorite things in life: posters of the singing group and pictures of brides-to-be. Part of her reason for living in a fantasy world is that her family life is so depressing. Her brothers and sisters spend all day lounging in front of the television. Her mother (Jeane Drynan) is oblivious to the goings-on around her, and her father (Bill Hunter) doesn't miss any opportunity to brand Muriel as "useless." In fact, he derides her as the most useless of his children. On top of that, her bitchy friends call her an embarrassment and announce that they don't want her accompanying them on a vacation.

Muriel takes all this to heart and decides that the only way to change her life is to leave the town of Porpoise Spit and find a man. To this end, she follows her friends to the resort of Hibiscus Island. Once there, she encounters Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), an old school chum. In this wild party girl, Muriel discovers something she has never before had -- a real friend, someone who actually cares about her.

I love this movie. It's about a neglected, outsider girl from a small town in coastal Australia who moves to Sydney to be somebody. It's all themed around ABBA.


I loved that movie.  But I didn't know it had anything to do with ABBA.

Not so much themed around ABBA, she was just obsessed with them.

Cock-Sucker became my favourite phrase for weeks after watching this for the first time.

It's a great film and a great story.

I've yet to see this movie.

Not so much themed around ABBA, she was just obsessed with them.

Cock-Sucker became my favourite phrase for weeks after watching this for the first time.

It's a great film and a great story.


Yeah, it's a great film and a great story.

Yeah, it's a great film and a great story.


You're terrible Muriel!

Ah, this film and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert were our greatest contributions to 'Queer' culture. I haven't seen it in awhile, but it certainly did leave an impression on me. An interesting thing I always remember was an ad for the Sydney 2000 olympics on one of the Taxi board things; the film was released way back in 1993 but shown just after Sydney got the Olympics.

One of my fave movies.  It makes me laugh and cry every time I watch it.  You've got good taste James ;) :)

It ignited an ABBA revival, I remember they also came out with ABBA Gold around that time and it sold very well.

It ignited an ABBA revival, I remember they also came out with ABBA Gold around that time and it sold very well.


Yeah I still have a tape from 1994 on a TV-show on the whole ABBA revival thing, lol.