A glossy, fast-moving Hollywood farce with a sharp eye for daytime-TV absurdity, strong ensemble energy, and a standout comic turn from Sally Field. It’s often very funny and knowingly campy, but the ending is widely regarded as a major misfire that undercuts the goodwill it builds.
Soapdish
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Comedy
Fri · 1h 37m
Director: Michael Hoffman
Starring: Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr.
Overview
Celeste Talbert is the star of the long-running soap opera "The Sun Also Sets." With the show's ratings down, Celeste's ruthlessly ambitious co-star, Montana Moorehead, and the show's arrogant producer, David Seton Barnes, plot to aggravate her into leaving the show by bringing back her old flame, Jeffrey Anderson, and hiring her beautiful young niece, Lori Craven.
Director
Michael Hoffman
Cast
Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr.
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, fast-moving Hollywood farce with a sharp eye for daytime-TV absurdity, strong ensemble energy, and a standout comic turn from Sally Field. It’s often very funny and knowingly campy, but the ending is widely regarded as a major misfire that undercuts the goodwill it builds.
Best for
fans of backstage showbiz comedies
viewers who like campy ensemble farce
people interested in early-90s star-driven comedy
audiences who enjoy soap-opera satire
Skip if
you’re sensitive to transphobic or cruel punchline humor
you want a consistently progressive comedy
you prefer comedies without a sour ending
you need the satire to stay sharp all the way through
Overview
Soapdish is a brisk, very 1991 kind of comedy: glossy, overcast with ego, and built around the deliciously stupid machinery of television melodrama. It works best as a backstage satire, sending up soap-opera excess, vanity, and the desperation of people who live for applause. Sally Field anchors it with a wonderfully unhinged performance, and the supporting cast gives the movie a lot of snap and texture.
Worth noting
The film’s biggest strength is its sense of pace and ensemble timing. It keeps finding new ways to make the production of a soap feel like a pressure cooker of petty sabotage, romantic chaos, and career panic. There’s a real affection for the genre it’s mocking, which helps the jokes land even when the movie is broad.
Bottom line
But the ending is a serious problem. What starts as a playful, affectionate farce takes a meaner turn that many viewers will find ugly and hard to forgive. If you can tolerate a very dated final stretch, there’s a lot of fun here; if not, the movie’s charm may not survive the last reel.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Iman Vellani (3★) · 501 likes
One time I told Whoopie Goldberg that I loved her in Glee and Soapdish, and she patted me on the back while saying "Child, it was a different time..."
jack ✿ · 384 likes
this sure was a lot of fun until it turned into a big transphobic mess at the end!!
Sally Jane Black (0.5★) · 341 likes
Not only is a person's status as a trans woman used as a cruel punchline, it's also used to (a) destroy her life and (b) imply she is bad in some general way. And it makes a man who slept with her gag. So. Fuck everything about this movie.
Anna · 239 likes
Whyyyyyy did the last 6 min hav to happen
Nico (3.5★) · 182 likes
no one does unhinged like sally field, twinky rdj is a snacc but this film is ruined by a gross ending :/