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Soapdish
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Soapdish reminded me of Tootsie (1982), since it's also about
the daily lives of soap stars on and off the set, and it has a climactic scene
where real-life truth comes spilling out while the cameras roll.
And,
also like Tootsie, it's a comedy of
identity, sexual and particularly family identity – although on this level it
comes to a rather more conservative conclusion than does Blake Edwards’ Switch (1991).
But Soapdish carries its themes quite
lightly. Some of the advance word on the film has promised a wicked satire on
the daytime soaps. But it picks very little on the programs, and not at all on
soap viewers, which I found a relief. Basically, Soapdish is a bit of a carnival, a life's-like-that whirl. It
revels in the way people swirl together in social interaction, bitching,
performing, scheming, adapting, surviving. Despite
vague plot moves to the contrary, no one really changes or grows, or looks
inside themselves. They just keep on acting, pulling themselves together and putting on their mask again after they fall a teensy, humiliating
bit.
Director
Michael Hoffman assembles some wonderfully self-conscious performers to express
this ethos of the world as a stage: Sally Field (who has rarely been cast this
well), Kevin Kline, Robert Downey, Jr.
All
up, Soapdish is a busy if
unspectacular piece of comic whimsy.
© Adrian Martin October 1991 |
