History Film / MurielsWedding

* EvilEyeshadow: Played straight and subverted with Tania and her clique, who also wear tons and tons of garish makeup.

* ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful: Tania attempts--and fails miserably at--doing this while ironically making one of [[https://www.reddit.com/r/MarriedAtFirstSight/comments/sk3smm/alyssa_gives_me_tanya_from_muriels_wedding_energy/ her ugliest facial expressions]] in the entire movie.

* ManChild: Muriel is a downplayed version of this; she's not the loser others think she is but at the start of the movie she is jobless, without ambition besides getting married, spends all day in her room listening to ABBA songs and lies to boutique workers so that she can take pictures in wedding gowns for free. She does grow up and starts being true to herself, though.

* ScrewTheRulesImBeautiful: Tania attempts--and fails miserably at--doing this while ironically making one of her ugliest facial expressions in the entire movie.

* HulaAndLuaus: Hibiscus Island

* BouquetToss: The film starts with a dramatic slow-motion bouquet toss, which Muriel catches. Since everyone expects that she will be the last woman to ever get married, her snotty "friends" demand she re-toss it to someone else.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Muriel and David Van Arkle when they finally consummate their marriage. In contrast, adulterer Chook cannot perform with [[AlphaBitch nasty]] Tania.

* StylisticSuck: Muriel's dancing and lip-syncing at the beginning of "Waterloo". She's clearly very unsure of herself and is only going through the motions, whereas Rhonda is really going for it. Over the course of the song Muriel gains more confidence, and by the end they're both totally into it.

* CoolBigSister: Joannie seems to see Muriel this way, and, compared to her other siblings, who seldom leave the house, Muriel does have some spunk and initiative.

%%** DeadpanSnarker: Rhonda.

** DisabledSnarker: [[spoiler: Rhonda's cancer has no effect on her snark.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Muriel given all the bad stuff that happens to her.

* HeelFaceTurn: David Van Arkle, Muriel's very unwilling groom [[spoiler: after Muriel's mother dies.]]
** Bill also in the aftermath of the aforementioned and [[spoiler: Deidre leaving him.]]
* GirlPosse: Tania, Nicole, Cheryl and Janine. Becomes a TerribleTrio after [[spoiler: Nicole is kicked out of the possee for having sex with Tania's husband]].

* HotGuyUglyWife: Muriel being ugly is YMMV (one can say she's a [[BigBeautifulWoman BBW]] whose effort at presentation falls flat), but CitizenshipMarriage husband David is a stunner.

* IWantSong: In her most depressed moments, Muriel will pop a tape into her cassette player and sing along to one of the myriad of Music/{{ABBA}} songs featured in the movie. (Usually ''Dancing Queen'', though, for Muriel, any [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic ABBA]] song will do.)

* TheLoinsSleepTonight: Chook.

* ReallyGetsAround: Rhonda.
* ReactionShot: The guests at Muriel's wedding when ABBA's "I Do I Do I Do" blares out.

* SheCleansUpNicely: ''Muriel, you're beautiful.''
* SourOutsideSadInside: David who is pressured into a marriage of convenience for the sake of his swimming career.

* UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}}

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse?: Whatever happened with David's Olympic bid? David's desire to represent Australia stemmed from a fear that his homeland South Africa would be barred from the Games. In real life South Africa ''did'' enter the 1996 Olympics, so perhaps David swam for his home country - having learned from Muriel to be true to himself.

Muriel Heslop (Toni Collette) is a socially inept young woman who lives in the small Australian resort town of Porpoise Spit with her [[{{Hikikomori}} shut-in siblings]], [[CloudCuckoolander mentally unstable mother]] and emotionally abusive father ([[SleazyPolitician city councilman]] Bill Heslop, played by veteran actor Bill Hunter.) Unemployed and recently ostracized from her group of [[GirlPosse stuck-up friends]], Muriel has begun to feel trapped in her life as a "nobody" and unable to fulfill her life-long dream of having the perfect wedding. Muriel jumps at the chance to impress her friends by following them to a tropical resort -- a vacation that has been financed by Muriel stealing several thousand dollars from her father's bank account.

* CloudCuckoolander: Bettie Heslop. It's implied she has some sort of mild mental problem

* DeadpanSnarker: Rhonda.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Muriel's mother]].

* CallingTheOldManOut

** Also Muriel frequently
* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Near the end of the film, [[spoiler:Tania's husband Chook has been arrested for raping a Japanese tourist. Tania thinks it's ridiculous, because Chook ''hates'' the Japanese.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Tania holds a grudge against Rose Biggs for fellating Tania's husband Chook, ''on their wedding day''. However, by the end of the film, Tania and Rose are apparently on good terms again. Why? Tania fellated Rose's husband, and realized that Rose isn't so different from Tania and the rest of her clique. Which later prompts Rhonda to say, "And you three--what a bunch of cocksuckers." Which made Tania and her friends react pretty much the way you'd expect. Muriel herself behaves towards the two people who are loyal to her - Rhonda and her mother - that is not so different from how she was treated by her friends and father.
** Tania is just as obsessed with marriage as Muriel and is so anxious to stay married that she takes back her spouse, a two-time adulterer and convicted rapist. Muriel at least wises up.
** Muriel is a crook and liar just like her father but she does resolve to change at the end of the film.
** Muriel and David are both obsessed with being winners, be it through marriage or an Olympic gold medal.

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse?: Whatever happened with David's Olympic bid? David's desire to represent Australia stemmed from a fear that his homeland South Africa would be barred from the Games. In real life South Africa 'did' enter the 1996 Olympics, so perhaps David swam for his home country - having learned from Muriel to be true to himself.

* WhateverHappenedToTheMouse?: Whatever happened with David's Olympic bid?

* YourCheatingHeart: Chook and Bill Heslop.

* {{Adorkable}}: Brice, Muriel's first boyfriend.

* BrainlessBeauty: Tania and her clique. Though how educated they actually are isn't clear, but nevertheless, they're certainly very much shallow, superficial, and profoundly clueless.

* BrainlessBeauty: Tania and her clique. Though how educated they actually are isn't clear, but nevertheless, they're certainly very much shallow and superficially clueless.