O Casamento de Betsy

Nothing could bring more rivalry between parents and would be in-laws as a wedding. The young couple in this story has more common sense than their elders. They just want a small affair, but then, the parents get involved blowing the whole thing out of proportion. What a terrible waste these things are. After all, most of them would end up in divorce.

Alan Alda has written, directed and is one of the stars of "Betsy's Wedding", a film about two different families, one struggling, and the other one rich, whose children are going to marry. The comedy is a bit dated. What starts as a small wedding ends up as an elaborate celebration in a tent in the middle of a rain storm. There are a few laughs in the picture.

Best of the whole thing are Ally Sheedy and Anthony LaPaglia who are supposed to be secondary characters. The large cast does what it can with the material they have to play. Alan Alda, Madeline Kahn, Molly Ringwald, Dylan Walsh, Joe Pesci, and Catherine O'Hara are seen as the family members.

Like "Parenthood" and "Moonstruck," Betsy's Wedding is a funny, feel-good movie about a wonderfully eccentric family and their hilarious trials and tribulations - it's about everything but their daughter's wedding!

This movie has it all! The mob, crazy romances, and outrageous revenge schemes! The cast is so wonderful and I give a thumbs up for Mr. Alan Alda's direction. I loved Madeline Kahn as always, Ally Sheedy was her sexiest, Molly Ringwald was great, and a special gratitude for Catherine O'Hara and Joe Pesci for making me roll of my seat laughing.

If your a fan of "Father of the Bride 1 and 2" or "Runaway Bride," your sure going to enjoy "Betsy's Wedding."

SCANDAL. LUST. DISASTER. INTRIGUE. ...and the invitations haven't even gone out yet!

Enjoy the show!

A movie like this is only as good as the ensemble in it, and in this case all the actors masterfully create characters that we immediately identify with or sympathize with. Sometimes we laugh with them, too, but unfortunately, not as much as one would hope.

Out of the large cast, Ally Sheedy and Anthony LaPaglia shine above the other actors and are memorable. Also Catherine O'Hara is one of those people who makes me laugh just to look at her. If it were up to me, she's be in EVERYTHING.

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.

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.