Director: Alan Alda
Betsy Hopper: Molly Ringwald
Jake Lovell: Dylan Walsh
Eddie Hopper: Alan Alda
Lola Hopper: Madeline Kahn
Connie Hopper: Ally Sheedy
Oscar Henner: Joe Pesci
Gloria Henner: Catherine O'Hara
Stevie Dee: Anthony LaPaglia
Eddie's Father: Joey Bishop

Paige and David Coffee Talk Betsy's Wedding
David: We're going to try to review this without fighting. You see, Betsy's Wedding hit a wee bit too close to home. Let's just say that the outset that Ally Sheedy is just the cat's meow in this picture.
Paige: Her explanation to the mother of the groom about how much she became a cop because she just likes to arrest people — well, as far as I'm concerned, she's made her contribution to American cinema. That along with her dandruff scene in Breakfast Club.
David: The difference is that Ally Sheedy can actually act, and Molly Ringwald can't. And Molly is supposed to be the bride that the movie is about.
Paige: Alan Alda wrote this movie, and he must have had a daughter getting married. he knows from where he speaks. And he probably had a bitter, miserable time.
Paige: Plus, Madeline Kahn is great in this movie.
David: Madeline Kahn is always great.
Paige: True. You just don't like Molly Ringwald. You feel about Molly Ringwald like I feel about Hugh Grant.
David: Who? Lou Grant?
Paige: HUGH GRANT. More hair.
David: Oh, I was thinking about the guy with Mary Tyler Moore.

Look, if you're able to be objective, this is a fun movie. If you're too close to the event, both chronologically and emotionally, you might not be able to handle watching these people fight out their differences.

But I found a lot of things to like about this movie. I liked that she fixed the dress so it would be ugly in a completely different way than how it was originally intended. I liked that the stylist or set designer or whoever painted "...and they lived happily ever after" on the walls of Molly and her fiancee's apartment, and how they kept filming them standing in front of those words as they fought over whose parents were more insane. I loved everything about the Stevie Dee/Connie courtship, especially the part where he talks about how he spends all of his time thinking about her and the things she would like. What she would like to eat, or do, or when he turns on the radio, he thinks about whether she likes rock or jazz, or classical music, like Sinatra. Also, Alan Alda totally nails the Italian family expreience for me. It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling about the Italian families I know at home.

Also, it was not lost on me that Molly's hubby's name was Jake. I consider that an intentional carry-over from Sixteen Candles, John Hughes' seminal '80s work about love and birthdays, where Molly's love interest was also named Jake. It's all significant. David would probably say that she just probably couldn't handle being forced to remember too many new names. But you may have noticed that he doesn't have a whole lot of esteem for her as an actress.

This movie traces the odyssey that families undertake from the moment a woman announces her engagement to her wedding day. The families have culture clashes. The father of the bride has agita from trying to pay for the wedding of everyone's dreams. The brother-in-law of the mother of the bride is involved with the mob and drags his whole family into dealing with them until before they know it, they're not only financially entangled, but romantically as well. So it's your basic true life narrative. It's practically a documentary.

The least credible part of the whole experience is that they're trying to pass Catherine O'Hara off as Madeline Kahn's Jewish sister. I don't honestly think that there's much you can do to turn her into a M.O.T. Fortunately, she's so fun to watch that it hardly bothers me at all. Actually everyone's great in this movie. The Ally Sheedy/Anthony LaPaglia performances are almost too funny to be withstood. Even the guy who plays the rabbi is great.

Bottom line: Boy and girl and their families try to get these two crazy kids married off and still retain some semblance of sanity. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll be better than Cats. When they show it on some Sunday afternoon in winter you'll sit down to watch it for the third time.