Soapdish

Directed by Michael Hoffman, Soapdish details the chaos that ensues on the set of a daytime soap opera after an ambitious actress (Cathy Moriarty’s Montana) convinces an executive producer (Robert Downey Jr’s David) to cast the old flame (Kevin Kline’s Jeffrey) of the series’ star (Sally Field’s Celeste) in an effort to force her to quit. It’s an appropriately larger-than-life setup that’s employed to fun and mostly entertaining effect by Hoffman, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Robert Harling and Andrew Bergman, delivers a briskly-paced comedy that’s rife with laugh-out-loud bits of silliness and stellar performances – with, in terms of the latter, the picture benefiting quite substantially from the across-the-board captivating work of its various stars. (Field and Kline are especially fun here, to be sure.) The progressively frenetic bent of Harling and Bergman’s script paves the way for a gleefully over-the-top third act that cements Soapdish‘s place as a solid (albeit somewhat forgettable) endeavor, and it’s not difficult, ultimately, to overlook the few lulls contained within the often remarkably overstuffed narrative.

*** out of ****