BETSY'S WEDDING
A film review by Laurie Mann
Copyright 1991 Laurie Mann
Alan Alda makes very irritating movies. They are never 100% bad, but they are always inconsistent, with good performances hidden by poor performances, boring writing intercut with wry observations on life, and clumsy direction. Of his movies, I liked SWEET LIBERTY the best, though it, too, suffered from all the things I've mentioned here. BETSY'S WEDDING is a very typical Alda movie.
BETSY'S WEDDING follows the few months between the time Betsy (Molly Ringwald) announces her engagement and marries a young man from a very rich family. Every pre-wedding cliche in the book is played out in the interim. Rich fiance's family tries to take over, but Betsy's Dad (Alan Alda) insists that he'll handle everything. Both Ringwald and Alda are incredibly dull in this movie, as is her fiance. (He's so dull I can neither remember the name of the character he played, nor the name of the actor himself!)
Many of the supporting characters give wonderful performance. Madeline Kahn, as Betsy's Mom, and ????, as Steve Vidi, the the sweet-natured hood, particularly stand out. Joe Pesci gives his patented hyper performance as Betsy's uncle. The subplots dealing with the underworld, and Steve's devotion to Betsy's cop sister (Ally Sheedy) were both more fun than the main plot.
This is probably worth watching when it hits cable, for a few hours of mindless "entertainment." It's about a 6 on the Chuck scale.
This movie is rated R, probably just because of some sex-talk. HAMLET was much more graphic, and was rated PG-13!
Laurie Mann lmann@jjmhome.UUCP Laurie_Mann@m80.stratus.com NeXT mail: lmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
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