Undertaking Betty (2002)

This is what I would call a lightly dark romantic comedy in the British style Considering the subject matter deals with death, infidelity and revenge, the film achieves a nice balance of the silly and the morbid but it all unfolds rather gently.
It is a comedy about romance and death, via undertakers, in the small Welsh town of Wrottin-Powys, population 7,500, the film starts us off in 1964 as we see a young couple clearly smitten with each other and the atmosphere only ball-room dancing can provide (stay with me here…). The shy young gentleman is close to making his move when a pudgy kid intercepts him. A hesitation that may have cost him almost forty years.
That gentleman is Boris Plots (the fascinating casting choice of Alfred Molina), and he is now 48 and owns his own funeral parlor in town. Still harboring a secret crush on Betty (Brenda Blethyn) and ball-room dancing, he’s still waiting for the perfect chance to make his move…Poor, sweet Betty, meanwhile, has married the pudgy kid, Hugh Rhys-Jones, upon her father’s insistence. While poor Betty has been stuck at home taking care of Hugh’s obnoxious bed-ridden mother, Hugh (Robert Pugh) has become the pompous town mayor and has been carrying on an affair with his secretary sexpot (Naomi Watts).
When Betty’s mother-in-law croaks, during an episode of Jerry Springer no less (a town favorite it seems), Boris finally gets his chance to alleviate a heavy heart. Naïve Betty returns his feelings but wants no harm to come to Hugh and his reputation so an elaborate plan is concocted. They will fake her death and run off together. Simple, right? Hmm...of course not, but that is when you realize you are in a dark comedy, but not too dark a one.
In a subplot that holds the most laughs, Chris Walken and Lee Evans are Frank Featherbed and assistant, competing morticians who think of funerals as “fun-erals”. “The root word of funeral is fun” notes Frank. He is a slightly off-kilter guy who thinks every funeral needs a theme and also likes to offer discounts of the “buy one funeral get the next one half off” variety. A particularly funny episode involves a widow who makes the mistake of mentioning Star Trek as the favorite show of his recently deceased spouse…this pre-dates 'Hairspray', but it is always great to see Christopher Walken dance rather than being super-creepy.
The movie is a 'feel good' movie, with everyone getting their come uppance in the end.