In modern fairy tale fashion, Muriel's Wedding is the story of an ugly duckling who transforms herself with comic flair into a beautiful swan. Small wonder this Australian import has met with heaps of praise and affection — it's tremendously appealing, in spite of a storyline that randomly grabs narrative devices, from comedy to tragedy, and jams them into the film until it begins to resemble an overstuffed purse. You never know what writer/director P.J. Hogan is going to grab for next, and there are distinct moments when he doesn't seem so sure, either.

Muriel (Toni Collette) starts off as a pathetic creature whose one dream is to marry in a lavish ceremony, though in the movie's first scene she catches a wedding bouquet and is bossed into giving it to a more likely candidate. Then she's arrested for shoplifting her dress. But while our Muriel may be a mess, she's not without inner resources. Out-foxing her bullying father (Bill Hunter) and talking her mousy mother into handing over a blank check, Muriel takes off for a Balinese vacation, where she hooks up with Rachel Griffiths, an independent spirit with more than a passing resemblance to Juliette Lewis. Soon they're sharing digs in Sydney, where the transformation of Muriel really begins.

By the time Muriel's Wedding is over, Muriel has not only fulfilled her fantasies but recognized how shallow they really are; one character is hit with cancer; another dies; and one by one, the plastic, pretty people all get their due. A revenge comedy wouldn't have it any other way, and a movie out to capture sympathy and understanding has to be a bit shameless when it comes to grabbing the audience by the heart. Hogan builds up this wedding cake without much concern for whether the layers belong together, because he knows at the top of his confection he's got Muriel herself. Collette's performance builds naturally in spite of the movie's erratic spirit. She singlehandedly remakes Muriel into a different person, and with a mixture of sweetness and charm, rescues the film while she's at it.

P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding, one of the surprise hits of early 1995, harks back to the recent US success of other Australian films with its satirical, delightfully campy style. Toni Collette stars as Muriel Heslop, a young ABBA fan who sets out to make a life for herself by leaving her hometown, family and friends.

Muriel is a plump and unhappy woman who dreams of escaping to a new and better life through marriage. She's also a fanatical follower of the Swedish pop band ABBA, whose songs are featured prominently on the soundtrack. She's dumped by friends who look down on her and ridiculed by her father (Bill Hunter) for being useless. When her parents give her a blank check to get her started in business, she seizes the opportunity to reinvent herself, emptying the family bank account and leaving provincial Porpoise Spit. She surprises her vacationing ex-friends by showing up at the same resort they're staying at, but winds up making a new friend in Rhonda (Rachel Griffith). She moves to Sydney, finds a job, changes her name, and embarks on new adventures.

Secretly Muriel feeds her obsession by going to wedding boutiques to fit dresses and by keeping a private photo album of herself in different dresses. Through the personal ads, she meets and marries a wealthy young white South African (David Lapaine) who is trying to secure Australian citizenship so that he can swim in the Olympics. Muriel is thrilled at her wedding, despite the groom's obvious apprehension.

Muriel cannot sustain her dreams. Rhonda is confined to a wheelchair after sudden surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her back; Muriel's father leaves her mother (Jeanie Drynan) for another woman (Gennie Nevinson) and loses his job; and her mother kills herself with sleeping pills soon after the wedding. Muriel decides she cannot continue to lie. She resumes her true first name, gives up on her marriage, and asks Rhonda, who moves back to Porpoise Spit to live with her mother, to return to Sydney with her.

Like the Australian hits Strictly Ballroom (1993) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Muriel's Wedding projects a cheeky, benevolent satirical spirit, celebrating the dreams of losers and outcasts. The film relies heavily on Toni Collette, who supplies the necessary screen charisma. Her Muriel is emotionally flamboyant, by turns mopish and highly excitable.

Ultimately, the comedy here is grounded in self-hatred, hostility, and despair. Nearly everyone who wanders through this brash and deliberately tasteless film is stupid, ungainly, or grotesquely tragic. But this only heightens the pleasure during moments of delirious merriment, as when Muriel lip-synchs an ABBA song at a karaoke contest, resplendent and unashamed in a tight-fitting white satin jumpsuit.

(Profanity, sexual situations.)