Plots with a View is an outrageous romantic black-comedy focusing
on unrequited love and the competitive world of undertaking in a small
Welsh town. Brenda Blethyn and Alfred Molina are perfectly cast as
the unassuming lovers whilst there are scene-stealing cameos from
Christopher Walken’s crass American funeral director and Naomi
Watts’ scantily-clad gold digger. Unfathomably, the film never
went on general release in the UK despite the strong cast and was
renamed Undertaking Betty in the US – perhaps an attempt to
cash-in on the success of Blethyn’s Saving Grace (2000).
Set in the small Welsh town of Wrottin, Powys, shy funeral parlour
owner Boris Plots (Alfred Molina) life is about to turn upside down.
The woman he's loved since he was a young boy, Betty Rhys-Jones (Brenda
Blethyn), is about to become available - by staging her own untimely
demise so the two can elope together. And the business Boris has always
loved is about to come under attack from flashy American competitor
Frank Featherbed (Christopher Walken) and his assistant Delbert (Lee
Evans), who aim to "put the fun back in funerals" with themed
burials, Vegas-style ceremonies and a whole lot of pizzazz. Betty’s
husband, the womanising town councillor Hugh is glad to be rid of
his wife, as is his hilariously scheming mistress Meredith (Naomi
Watts) who was intent on bumping off Betty anyway. After her staged
death, Betty discovers the truth about her adulterous husband’s
and his strumpet secretary - and decides to get even before departing.