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Soapdish (1991)

A review by Damian Cannon.
Copyright © Movie Reviews UK 1997
It's the evening of the annual "Daytime Television Awards" and all of the stars are there. Standing out amongst the soap opera stars is Celeste Talbert (Sally Field), chief attraction in The Sun Also Sets, winner of the Best Actress award and "America's Sweetheart". Of course, in reality she's a total bitch who wouldn't pause once, in her drive towards fame, before trampling all over you. Unfortunately the joy doesn't last long; when Celeste returns home, to her lover, she finds that he's left to return to his wife and kids (who live in Pittsburgh!). The next day we're thrown into the chaos of daily filming where Celeste shouts at David Barnes (Robert Downey,Jr), bitches at Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty) and commiserates with Rosa Schwartz (Whoopi Goldberg). Everyone seems out to get her and, in fact, they are!

Montana detests Celeste with a vengeance, desiring the top-spot and willing to do anything to get it. Her willing accomplice is David (the Producer) who lusts after her abundant charms and is slimy enough to agree with someone to their face while simultaneously stabbing them in the back! The plot twists and turns as they set up the destruction of Celeste, to a backdrop of bitchy comments, hilariously bad acting and cliff-hanger moments (all ingredients of the best soap opera). Somehow, with the help of her script writer Rosa, wriggles out of their first plot - turning the situation into a bizarre family reunion which has the bosses upstairs in ecstasy (at the increased ratings). Then David hits upon the crazy idea of resurrecting an old character who was beheaded twenty years ago (they're sure that they can explain his return from death somehow!). The key is that Jeffrey Anderson (Kevin Kline) is an old flame of Celeste's who got the boot at her insistence.

Rescued from Florida diner hell (acting in a steak house/theatre) Jeffrey returns to cause havoc and have his revenge on Celeste. Life on- and off-screen blurs together as they battle each other. Montana becomes frustrated at not being able to achieve her true "potential" and David becomes even more frustrated when he can't "have his way" with the blond bombshell. Juggling ever more absurd plot-lines The Sun Also Sets becomes even more popular with their daytime audiences, ensuring the invulnerability of Celeste. In a series of climaxes the venality, greed and envy of the actors springs to the fore with a total lack of shame. Things looks good for next years TV Awards.

Throughout Soapdish there are a lot of funny scenes and some of these are extremely amusing indeed (particularly some of the one-liners). The drawback is that these are simply the high points - most of the time the actors dash around frantically. Only some of the blame can lie with the cast since both Kline and Field give excellent performances, putting real verve and energy into their characters. The problem is really that the writers had the brilliant idea of satirizing a TV show, knew some of the critical mannerisms and then didn't see how to give the story real depth. We laugh at Celeste and Jeffrey but we don't feel any resonance with them. All of this adds up to a movie which has lots of good times but doesn't stick around to be remembered.

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