91 Minutes
Directed By: Michael Hoffman
Written By: Robert Harling
Staring: Sally Field, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Kline, Whoopie Goldberg, Cathy Moriarty, Elisabeth Shue, Carrie Fisher, Teri Hatcher, Kathy Najimy, and Garry Marshall
Actors don’t like to play coma. They feel it limits their range. -Rose Schwartz
Synopsis
An ambitious TV soap actress plots with the shows producer to give the long time star the boot, while her personal life is crumbling on television.
Review
Without delving into the plot or the character’s Soap Dish looks pretty impressive just by it’s casting list. With it’s early nineties style, overworked plot line, and quirky character’s it often exaggerated itself to the extremes, but found redeeming moments in hysterical scenes. Each of the actors have unique defining qualities to offer this rambunctious story, the only issue was it does seem to run away with itself a bit too often.
For a film that is clearly a satire it teeters dangerously close to being a mockery of itself, but mostly atones it’s missteps with gregarious moments of parody. The comical glimpse into Hollywood soap stars, and the business entirely rings true on occasion, but is successful in displaying it’s points in a mostly humorous fashion. The final moments and scenes where the end results takes the character’s and the story a bit too far, but it’s thankfully at the end of the movie and becomes forgivable.
There are some stellar performances between Kevin Kline and Sally Field who exude amazing chemistry and brilliant comedic timing together and made some otherwise unrestrained moments have definition. Cathy Moriarty and Robert Downey Jr.’s relationship isn’t very comical, and most of their scenes come off as awkward, but every once in awhile Downey Jr. really nails line and it makes the insidious banter between the two mean something. With extra players like Whoopie Goldberg, Elisabeth Shue, and a very young Teri Hatcher the crazy twists and turns are usually pretty amusing.
Soap Dish is mostly victorious in what it’s intended goals were. It accomplishes being a funny, edgy satire about the Soap world and Hollywood itself. The character’s soap character’s making a mirror of their real lives is both clever and jesting. In general it’s a good movie to pass an afternoon, but mostly because of it’s exemplary comic cast.
