public libraries

don't you just love how you can check out movies for free at public libraries? literally (and I use literally in every true sense of the word, thank you gay steamroller) you can take movies from the physical library building to wherever it is that you happen to dwell, put the movie film into the player of your choice, and voila, FREE. MOVIE. this simple fact, if for no other reason, speaks to the enduring qualities our public libraries still poses, but which many people refuse to acknowledge.

i know you are asking yourself silently (or out loud) "My dear friend, what filmic wonder did the Monroe County Public Library bestow on you this fine day?" So glad you asked! Last evening, after going through the tricky process of placing a request for this film from another library (read: pressing a button), I checked out Muriel's Wedding. The film follows Muriel, played by the love of my life and yours, Toni Collette, as she is clumsily figuring out how to live authentically in her post adolescent, early twenties, slightly overweight body. After stealing a few thousand Australian (dollars? pounds? looneys?) from her parents, Muriel steals away to a tropical Australian isle, where she begins to make all of her dreams come true.

Nearly every review I had read about this movie lavished it with praises, calling it the single most hilarious movie of 1994. While the movie is quite funny, and more than once I laughed out loud at the sight of Muriel singing or dancing to any number of ABBA songs, the film also has a pretty severe dark side. Muriel, and the people she shares her life with, struggle with situations and issues that resonated realistically with the viewer. Not only do we love Muriel because she is funny, hopeless and full of life at the same time, we love her because she is real. Muriel has an authenticity of person and an overabundance of spirit that lesser characters in lesser movies strive for but seldom achieve.

Toni Collete and The Finish indeed.