Betsy’s Wedding (1990)

• Year: 1990
• Released: 22 Jun 1990
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 3 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099128/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/betsys_wedding
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Comedy, Romance
• Runtime: 94 min
• Writer: Alan Alda
• Director: Alan Alda
• Cast: Alan Alda, Molly Ringwald, Joey Bishop
• Keywords: gangster, long island, new york, debt, wedding, storm, construction worker,

	5.6/10
	52/100
	56% – Critics
	40% – Audience

Betsy’s Wedding Storyline

Offbeat fashion student Betsy Hopper and her straight-laced investment-banker fiancé Jake Lovell just want an intimate little wedding reception, but Betsy’s father Eddie, a Long Island construction contractor, feels so threatened by Jake’s rich WASP parents that he blows the ceremony up into a bank-breaking showpiece, sending his wife Lola into a financial panic. Pressure from Betsy’s extended family to include their joint Jewish and Italian-Catholic heritage in the ceremony does little to assuage her worries, and then there’s her older sister Connie; their parents assume she’s still single because she has the audacity to pursue the unfeminine profession of police officer. With all of his funds tied up in the money pit of a house he’s building, Betsy’s dad must turn to his crooked brother-in-law Oscar for financial assistance, and soon a soft-spoken but menacing young mobster named Stevie Dee is supervising Eddie’s construction project and casting his romantic aspirations toward the clueless Connie.—Anonymous

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Betsy’s Wedding Movie Reviews

And the winner of the most hideous wedding dress in a movie ever goes to…

A great cast goes a long way, but unfortunately, I can’t say that about Molly Ringwald’s wardrobe which appears to be a running gag. If so, it works. It made me gag. One of her outfits makes her appear that she thinks that she’s Mildred Pierce, pretty odd for 1990. But then again, she comes from a really audacious family, a mix of Italian Americans and Jewish Americans, and nowhere as glamorously flashy as Fran Drescher on “The Nanny”. Having been dragged to this when it first came out, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, but 30 plus years later, all I remember about it is the joke of a wedding dress she wears that was on the poster and the VHS and DVD cover. This film is actually very well written, penned by its director, Alan Alda, and definitely in a Woody Allen mentality, and the cast is a plethora of truly funny people.

This is the polar opposite of “Father of the Bride” where daddy is forgotten, because here, the father of the bride and the father of the groom (Alda and Nicolas Coster) become quick rivals in their efforts to take over the wedding. The bride-to-be’s mother, Madeline Kahn, sits looking on in horror as she hears all of the audacious plans that he has, while Bibi Besch, the mother of the groom, schemes with her husband to take over. They are both pretty well-off, with Alda the running a construction company with the help of his sister-in-law’s husband, Joe Pesci, ending up in business deals with the mafia ties versus young whose son Anthony LaPaglia makes a play with the other sister, tough talking cop Alley Sheedy. Pesci is an absolute sleazeball, having an affair with his secretary, unaware that his wife, Catherine O’Hara, is plotting against him.

A lot of scenes are stolen by veteran actress Julie Bovasso, best remembered for her role as John Travolta’s mother in “Saturday Night Fever”, speaking her mind in the most amusing way, and really telling it like it is. She pretty much rolls her eyes at everybody around her, and certainly they all deserve it. The New York City settings add beautifully to tell the story, with Coster and Besch living on Sutton Place, and LaPaglia hanging out in Little Italy. The film is much more entertaining when it focuses on situations not surrounding the wedding, and by the time the bride shows up, you’ll probably have forgotten that the film was about a wedding. In fact, one of the things that bothered me about this film the most was its very generic title which really doesn’t give it much flavor.

Average comedy that had both good and bad moments.

Oh I remember this movie-A friend and I had been talking about comedies , reminiscing really and she reminded me about this one. I’m sort of weird with comedies-meaning I don’t always like what the masses like-I seem to remember liking this(somewhat) but being all grown up now I doubt my reaction were I to view it would be as fond now.

There are many movies that stay timeless and never get old. In the case of Betsy’s wedding once you see it, it does leave you with a certain sweetness afterwards. The movie had some sweet things to say although they’ve been done before. The ending, though, was REALLY cute. This is not a movie that I would say,(as many reviewers on here do)is awful. Rather I would call it a somewhat cute comedy that gets you through a rainy night.

Good-hearted, well-intentioned comedy with realistic characters…but it’s not that funny

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)