Betsy's Wedding Is a Beautiful Disaster

M*A*S*H is my all-time favorite sit-com, so I’ve always been pretty familiar with Alan Alda, but I mostly think of him in association with television, so it was interesting to see him in the 1990 movie Betsy’s Wedding, which he also wrote and directed.

In this comedy, Alda plays Eddie Hopper, a devoted dad with big dreams. There’s a Walter Mitty-ish quality about this man who spends so much of his life in daydreams, but he has achieved some measure of happiness in the real world as well. He and his wife Lola (Madeline Kahn) love each other, and they have two grown daughters, one of whom is about to get married.

Brat Pack staple Molly Ringwald plays Betsy, the spirited young woman for whom Eddie is determined to throw the perfect wedding. The problem? Betsy’s future in-laws are equally adamant about throwing the wedding themselves, and neither wedding fits with the vision that Betsy has. With so many different people determined to have a hand in this ceremony and the reception to follow, will the happy couple get lost in the shuffle?

This is a fun comedy that shows how crazy a wedding can get when there are two very different but equally strong-willed sets of parents involved. Groom-to-be Jake (Dylan Walsh) comes from a very wealthy family, and his parents’ snobbery is even more aggravating than the appeals from Betsy’s relatives to incorporate both Catholic and Jewish traditions into what she intends to be an irreligious wedding.

Less directly involved with Betsy but very enjoyable are her scuzzy uncle Oscar (Joe Pesci), who rents the couple a decrepit apartment and makes shady deals with Eddie to finance the wedding, and young, gentlemanly mobster-in-training Stevie Dee (Anthony LaPaglia), who undertakes an old-fashioned courtship of Betsy’s sister Connie (Ally Sheedy), a tough-talking cop.

The film is fun and zany without being unrealistic, though Eddie’s fantasy sequences add to the fun of the movie. There’s also a definite warmth to it, especially from Eddie’s end as he comes to terms with this big change in his family and in the sweetness of the romance between Stevie and Connie. Movies revolving around weddings always have plenty of room for disaster as emotions run high and everyone strives to ensure this day is absolutely perfect. Betsy’s isn’t, but the chaotic events that punctuate it only serve to make it more memorable and a truer reflection of the bride and groom.