Muriel's Wedding

 I relish past summers, especially as a kid or student, because summer was different: unlike the slog of the school year and the mundane doldrums of the winter months, summer was a time of exploration, to doing that summer job that I liked (to this day getting paid $12 an hour at my summer camp job is still the most memorable, if not lucrative job, I've ever had. I've forgotten a lot of details of all my other jobs as they just get filed into obscurity after I'm done with them, but I'll always remember the summers 2006-2011 when I was a camp counselor) to going to different cities for work, summer has always been the time to make the most memories. As adults, though, we're forced to repress ourselves and continue doing all the mundane stuff ad infinitum, rinse and repeat, churn the butter until we don't need to anymore. I've always said I'd spend a summer just reading, or going to Australia, or in some way be someone totally different than who I usually am. One of those ambitions was just to do a summer of all the classic movies I've never seen, back to back to back to back, without pressure of deadlines or setting a time limit for myself, because that's usually why I fail to enjoy things: I dont' have enough time, no sooner have I started something than I'm already planning an exit out. to the next thing, that I don't let it marinate and actually enjoy. 

Well, at least for one day this summer, I got to do that: I watched the movie Muriel's Wedding, a Jeopardy favorite and a movie set in Australia .... and I needed a comedy. 30 year anniversary! Great movie if you're an ABBA fan, as it nearly has as many hits as "Mamma Mia! The movie" and fits into the theme of the movie, a girl down on her luck who grows up in a harsh world. Also reminded me that the seasons are reversed in Australia: summer is in December-January, winter's in July, right about now..... so maybe I should go there to cool down? I've always imagined Toni Collette to be a star who was born that way, but she is very much Muriel in Muriel's wedding, a bit overweight, not classically good-looking, and smiling in an enthusastic but what some might call uncool way. I sympathized with her character immediately trying to fit in with the in-crowd but being rejected just for being herself; I think most of the world would sympathize with the underdog character, not James Bond or any of those superheroes fitting the "Chosen One" character arc. Most humans probably view themselves as the "chosen one" hero of the story but in reality we're just NPCs (non-player characters) who don't amount to much in the world, and unfortunately eventually we learn that and just accept it. That's the theme of Muriel's Wedding, she goes on this crazy adventure (full of ABBA music) and makes it to the big city, Sydney, changes her name to Mariel, and gets involved in an immigration wedding (who hasn't?) but eventually realizes her place in the world and accepts who she is (exactly what the patriarchy and the powerbrokers in society want the message to be for us commonfolk, some would say). Oh and a great depiction by Rachel Griffiths (you've probably seen her in other movies but never placed her) as a cancer survivor and Muriel's friend; a great reminder that cancer can hit anyone at anytime with little to no warning. Sad, funny, and uplifting movie. I can see why Jeopardy likes it. Was it enough to get me to go into a classic movie binge this summer and make something out of this summer? We'll see!