Saw Muriel's Wedding, a film that is essentially a romance. It stars Muriel, stout and dim-witted, eternally shouted at and called useless by her has-been, never-was politician father, barely tolerated by her attractive and contemptuous "friends" who clearly only ever hang out with her because she's a charity case, who snap at her to think of others for a change whenever Muriel needs the least bit of attention. Her siblings are similarly bovine, smilingly beating up on Muriel to save themselves from being the family loser.
This film reminded me of Welcome to the Dollhouse. It's got the same pitch-black satire feel. It's not misery porn, but some of the situations are fairly painful. Also this is a romance, so the way out of this hell is revealed. The definition of happiness and success in Muriel's mind is a giant, fancy, beautiful wedding which would prove to the world (and to Muriel herself) that she is worthy of love. Muriel is so obsessed with this idea that she sees love as a sort of proof of worth in the world. To her, to be loved is to succeed at life, but the love she seeks, we learn, should be coming primarily from within.
This is a lovely and uplifting film with some really bleak parts in it (Muriel's poor mother thinks very similarly to Muriel and suffers greatly as a result.) Also I found the over-the-top super-villainy of her "friends" too cruel to really enjoy. However there are truly satisfying scenes when Muriel is starting to break out of her shell and there's also lots of 90s-hot guys, which was nice.
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