I had seen 'Betsy's Wedding' years ago, and recently (2004) bought the DVD. The DVD transfer is very good for a movie of this age, the movie is actually better than I remembered it, and apparently under-appreciated by most viewers. Alan Alda wrote and directed it, and plays the father, Eddie Hopper, a general housing contractor who gets in a little over his head. There are several stories going on, and the actual wedding is the least significant of them all. It is a superb comedy, with great dialog, especially from Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia who plays Stevie Dee, and his courting of the cop daughter is probably the most entertaining part of the movie. Its 'R' rating arrives from occasional salty language.
The rest of my comments, for my own recollection, contain SPOILERS, please read no further if you haven't seen the movie yet.
The movie begins with Betsy (Molly Ringwald) and her boyfriend Jake with her family at their modest rural home in West Hampton, celebrating grandpa's birthday, and announcing that they are getting married. The proud parents of two daughters begin to think about a small, intimate ceremony and reception. Until they meet Jake's investment banking parents at a restaurant, rich folks, who live in a NYC home that looks more like a museum, and who are determined to 'help' the kids have a nice wedding they will remember. As they walk into the exercise room, Jake's mom says, 'Henry is a little competitive, he knows exactly how many repetitions each of his vice presidents can do.' Well, Eddie is competitive too, and the first story is how the two families compete to have their way, plan the wedding, never mind what the kids want.
The second story concerns Eddie losing financial backing for a spec house he is building on the water in Long Island, his shady brother-in-law Oscar (Joe Pesci, in a nice role) helps him get mob-backed financing, which almost gets Eddie killed in a drive-by shooting outside a restaurant with the crooks, but Stevie Dee, the nephew, is being introduced to the 'business' and at the house site notices Eddie's other daughter, Connie (Ally Sheedy), a cop who 'loves to arrest people', gives her a high for the rest of the day. Which is the third story, Stevie Dee's quest for Connie, against all odds.
A fourth story is Oscar's wife, who knows Oscar is cheating in an affair with his young blonde secretary, she decides to get even instead of getting mad. Oscar has a big mouth and tells her of all his potential deals, she buys a property first under an alias, then sells it back to Oscar for a big profit, saving up for the day she dumps him. We witness one of them, he needs to buy a fish market, tells wife he would go as high as $1.5million, she writes it in her book, later at the wedding reception he laments how much 'that guy' stuck him for, 'it was almost as if he knew how high I was willing to pay.'
The compact 90-minute movie ends with the (short) wedding and the reception at the Long Island construction site in a tent, obtained by Oscar, but it rains, the ratty tent leaks, bursts, everyone gets wet, but the newlyweds are happy, Eddie gets out of the arrangement with the mob, and Stevie Dee and Connie seem happy together. Stevie Dee announces to his uncle, 'I've decided what I want to do with my life. I will enroll in the police academy.'
Easy to miss is a small role by Samuel L. Jackson as the taxi dispatcher. This was a few years before he started to get prime roles which propelled him to stardom.
The rest of my comments, for my own recollection, contain SPOILERS, please read no further if you haven't seen the movie yet.
The movie begins with Betsy (Molly Ringwald) and her boyfriend Jake with her family at their modest rural home in West Hampton, celebrating grandpa's birthday, and announcing that they are getting married. The proud parents of two daughters begin to think about a small, intimate ceremony and reception. Until they meet Jake's investment banking parents at a restaurant, rich folks, who live in a NYC home that looks more like a museum, and who are determined to 'help' the kids have a nice wedding they will remember. As they walk into the exercise room, Jake's mom says, 'Henry is a little competitive, he knows exactly how many repetitions each of his vice presidents can do.' Well, Eddie is competitive too, and the first story is how the two families compete to have their way, plan the wedding, never mind what the kids want.
The second story concerns Eddie losing financial backing for a spec house he is building on the water in Long Island, his shady brother-in-law Oscar (Joe Pesci, in a nice role) helps him get mob-backed financing, which almost gets Eddie killed in a drive-by shooting outside a restaurant with the crooks, but Stevie Dee, the nephew, is being introduced to the 'business' and at the house site notices Eddie's other daughter, Connie (Ally Sheedy), a cop who 'loves to arrest people', gives her a high for the rest of the day. Which is the third story, Stevie Dee's quest for Connie, against all odds.
A fourth story is Oscar's wife, who knows Oscar is cheating in an affair with his young blonde secretary, she decides to get even instead of getting mad. Oscar has a big mouth and tells her of all his potential deals, she buys a property first under an alias, then sells it back to Oscar for a big profit, saving up for the day she dumps him. We witness one of them, he needs to buy a fish market, tells wife he would go as high as $1.5million, she writes it in her book, later at the wedding reception he laments how much 'that guy' stuck him for, 'it was almost as if he knew how high I was willing to pay.'
The compact 90-minute movie ends with the (short) wedding and the reception at the Long Island construction site in a tent, obtained by Oscar, but it rains, the ratty tent leaks, bursts, everyone gets wet, but the newlyweds are happy, Eddie gets out of the arrangement with the mob, and Stevie Dee and Connie seem happy together. Stevie Dee announces to his uncle, 'I've decided what I want to do with my life. I will enroll in the police academy.'
Easy to miss is a small role by Samuel L. Jackson as the taxi dispatcher. This was a few years before he started to get prime roles which propelled him to stardom.