Il matrimonio di Betsy

Alan Alda has worked with Woody Allen on several occasions, and it struck me watching this movie that he was trying for a Woody-ish ensemble piece. But, despite a fine cast, this is no Crimes and Misdemeanors.

The various plot strands are not woven together sufficiently well; some of the characters can be almost forgotten about during lengthy periods off-screen, including the eponymous Betsy. Ally Sheedy and Antony LaPaglia provide the film's brightest moments with their unlikely romance (although not so unlikely in the movies, of course!).

A father (Alda) learns that his daughter (Ringwald) wants to get married. He is determined to give her an extravagant wedding even though his construction business is not doing well and he is in bad need of money.

If this thing had been played to it's full potential this might have been a real slam bang wedding satire. All the ingredients are there: feuding in-laws, disagreements on religions, seating arrangements, fashion styles, cost, and of course all those other unforeseen catastrophes. Unfortunately, like with all of Alda's films, he never plays anything out. He starts with something interesting and then pulls back just as it is about to get good. Some keen insights into the wedding process are lost. The climatic wedding 'disaster' is limp and only half of what it could have been. The needless story thread involving Alda's 'initiation' into a Italian crime family is both dumb and highly sterotyped.

The films lone payoff is the appearance of Bishop. He plays Alda's dead father and appears sporadically as 'visions'. Some of his observations are funny. Pesci also gives his part a lot of energy in a role that is slightly atypical for him. Yet none of it is enough to make it memorable.

3 out of 10.

Eddie Hopper (Alan Alda) owns a small construction business. The latest project falls through and he decides to go into debt to finish the house. At a family gathering for grandpa (Joey Bishop)'s birthday, his daughter Betsy (Molly Ringwald) announces her engagement to boyfriend Jake Lovell (Dylan Walsh). They want a small intimate wedding. To his wife Lola (Madeline Kahn)'s dismay, he gets into a competition with Jake's rich corporate raider father and ends up paying for an extravagant wedding. He asks Lola's sister Gloria (Catherine O'Hara)'s sleazy cheating developer husband Oscar Henner (Joe Pesci) for help. Oscar introduces him to mobster-like Georgie (Burt Young) who in exchange for a loan installs his nephew Stevie Dee (Anthony LaPaglia) to manage the home construction. Stevie Dee is taken with the house and Eddie's elder daughter cop Connie (Ally Sheedy). Then there is the wedding with fashion student Betsy's unconventional style and conflicting non-religious sensibility. The shootout doesn't help either.

Alan Alda wrote, directed, and starred in this movie. It's not that funny and overloaded with story from every other character. The saving grace is that I like everybody starting with Alda. He has an easy charm and the family has a loving chemistry. The wedding dysfunction works some of the time but it is simply not funny enough. As for the Razzie nominations of Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, I don't get it. Ringwald's character can be a little annoying but that's about it. Sheedy and newcomer LaPaglia are actually endearing together and I love their budding relationship. Somebody at the Razzies must have had it in for this movie.

This movie was surprisingly funny and timeless. Alan Alda, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwold, Joe Pesci and the late Madeline Kahn star in this funny wedding movie. Everyone knows Alda as a funny man who has been turning in some more serious performances lately but who knew Joe Pesci could be funny? Naturally, there is trouble over putting Eddie Hopper's (Alda) daughter's (Ringwold) wedding together. Straightforward plot with interest created by great characters and the actors who play them. This is a fun movie about family. Alan Alda outdoes himself in this 80's comedy. It's like we have a part of his hawk-eye personality back from MASH in this comedy.

The plot is very simple. Hopper's family is comfortable but not rich but the other family is rolling in dough and wants to take over the wedding. Oscar Henner (Pesci) is in construction but has ties to organized crime. Oscar is having an affair with his secretary but his wife (Catherine O'Hara) knows all about it. Hopper's other daughter (Sheedy) falls for the nephew (Anthony LaPaglia as Stevie Dee) of Oscar's not so honest associate (Burt Young). She's a cop and he's connected to the mob. Eddie borrows money from Oscar to pay for the wedding but Oscar charges him interest. Oscar involves Eddie in a deal with his associate but to get out of the deal might get him killed. Oscar offers to find a tent for the wedding but cuts a deal with someone and gets the wrong kind of tent. By the way, Oscar rents an apartment to the newlyweds in one of his tenament slum buildings! By the way, look for Samuel Jackson (unknown then) in a very small bit part in the taxi depot scene. It's lots of fun. No nudity, sex, violence.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

I have to admire Alan Alda for writing a film that contains characters we can actually relate to. Characters who seem like normal, everyday people and not farcical Hollywood creations. The problem? The film hardly goes anywhere. And I only got a few laughs. I'm not asking for "The Naked Gun." I'm not asking for a new gag every two minutes. But this film just didn't have enough humor to classify itself as a comedy. It needed an extra dose of energy, and I feel Alda should've stayed in front of the camera. Because his direction is flat, and the whole movie just seems like one big home video. Though the movie is only a little over ninety minutes, I felt some scenes belonged on the cutting room floor.

The cast is superb and first-rate, and they could've shined with a funnier script. Joe Pesci is the best of a lot, in a role quite different from his usual wise-cracking, tough-guy-from-Brooklyn act. Other talents are Catherine O'Hara, Anthony LaPaglia, the late Madeline Kahn and Molly Ringwald.

My Dad used to say, whenever he would watch a bad comedy, "I guess they call it a comedy, since there's no tragedy in it." That's how I can classify "Betsy's Wedding." No tragedy, but the laughs are scarce.

P.S.: Look fast for Samuel L. Jackson as a taxi dispatcher.

My score: 5 (out of 10)