Product Description

A POPULAR SOAP APERA IS DISRUPTED WHEN A PAST CHARACTER RETURNS HOME FROM THE DEAD, TO THE DISMAY OF THE STARS AND WRITERS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10221 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2001-12-11
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Though this movie did decent box-office business, it was never as funny as it should have been or as clever as it thought it was. The film is set behind the scenes at The Sun Also Sets, a soap opera starring Sally Field that is suffering a ratings slump. To lure the audience back, the producers resurrect a dead character, played by Kevin Kline, with whom Field was once a lover of but is now at odds (and helped exile to dinner theater, where he is first glimpsed playing Willy Loman). Written by Andrew Bergman and Robert Harling, the script has its funny moments but never manages to string them together, despite a cast that includes Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Downey Jr., Cathy Moriarty, and Carrie Fisher. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Very funny
This is a romantic comedy with the emphasis on comedy for a change. As usual the lovers--Sally Field as almost-over-the-hill soap opera queen, Celeste Talbert; and Kevin Kline as marginally employed and marginally talented actor, Jeffrey Anderson--are working at cross purposes, seemingly unaware that they are madly in love, etc. Owing a little to Bette Davis's Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950) and a whole lot to the slapstick theatrical tradition, Sally Field goes over the top towards hilarity as she malaprops her way to love and happiness. Kevin Kline, one of the more underrated leading men of recent years, is also very good and very winning as he manages to be handsome, vulnerable, egotistical and lovable all at the same time.

The misadventures center around Celeste's fear of losing her audience as she has entered her forties, and reach the crisis point with the arrival of her niece, aspiring actress Cori Craven (Elisabeth Shue) who turns out NOT to be her niece, with ensuing plot complications. Cori manages to get a small part in the soap opera as a homeless deaf mute before discovering her true relationship to Celeste (and to Jeffrey Anderson as well)--but never mind.

As a romantic counterpoint or foil to the leads are Robert Downey Jr. (soap opera director, David Barnes) and Cathy Moriarty (Montana and Nurse Nan). David Barnes is oh so hot for her, but she cares only about one thing: getting rid of Celeste so that she might shine more brightly on the set. To this end she gets Barnes to do all sorts of things to wreck Celeste's career, but through happenstance and/or a perverse logic, all his attempts go awry, much to the delight of the viewer.

Whoopie Goldberg plays Rose Schwartz, the show's chief writer and Celeste's alter-ego and confidant while Carrie Fisher has a modest part as the hard-as-nails producer of the show.

I thought this was funnier than the only other spoof of the soap opera world that I have seen (Young Doctors in Love 1982 which burlesqued TV's General Hospital and was pretty good). Soapdish is funnier with a daffy script and plenty of laugh-out-loud one-liners and terrific performances by Field, Kline and Downy, Jr. But see this for Sally Field who is outstanding.

This is my favorite oh-it's-on-anyway film. (Spoilers.)
If I'm doing a chore that I don't really want to devote my mind to or if I'm just looking for a pleasant way to spend a rather boring afternoon, "Soapdish," with its endless cast of Oscar winners and nominees, is the movie I watch.

Now, when I first saw it in theaters when I was around 14 or so, I was not as big a fan of it because I wasn't as big of a soap watcher. As I've seen more of the soaps and their surrounding culture that this film lampoons so closely, I find the humor to be spot on.

At this point, I've seen the film so many times that I can recite Celeste's speech about giving up her baby by heart. I know how many people Montana Moorehead attempts to seduce and how many she succeeds in seducing. I know that the producer David is a sniveling pig opportunist who embraces every twist that manages to work in his favor.

The script is hysterical. Line after line is quotable. And though I wouldn't call it a great movie, it's certainly an immense amount of good fun.

And the cast is top-notch, as well. At this point, the Oscar nominees and winners in the cast are: Cathy Moriarty, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Downey Jr., Elisabeth Shue, Kevin Kline and Sally Field. The film also features funny appearances from notables like Garry Marshall, Teri Hatcher, Costas Mandylor and Carrie Fisher. Oh, and to show its daytime TV savvy, Finola Hughes ("All My Children"), Stephen Nichols ("General Hospital"), John Tesh (late of "Entertainment Tonight") and Leeza Gibbons also make appearances.

kophgeschlagen!
"the last stages of brain fever - she could BLOW at any moment!" I have 2 dreams regarding this movie. 1. To produce it as a stage play 2. DVD. DVD. DVD. This movie was WAY underrated. It's brilliant. Sally Field and Kevin Kline could not be better. Too many quotes to choose from. Watch it. If you don't love it, watch it again. Sooner than you know, you'll be quoting it non-stop! I wish i could watch it on DVD now!