Hugh shoutout to my mentor, Brandi, for recommending this movie that I’ve never seen to me. It’s an Aaron Spelling (go look him up, youth) production with a lot of my favorite people. Sally Field, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Downey, Jr., Kevin Kline, and Cathy Moriarty (I’ll remind you of who she in a minute.) Let’s set the stage and then dive into the two stories.
In the principle story, show producer David Barnes (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) runs a soap opera (or as my grandma called them, “the stories”) called “The Sun Also Sets” that’s spinning out of control. Celeste Talbert (played by the phenomenal Sally Field) is the star of the show, but after being dumped by a married man she was dating, starts to terrorize everyone on the set. Her best friend (played by THEE Whoopi Goldberg), who also happens to be the lead writer for the show, is doing as much as she can to keep this woman from going over the edge. Although there is a scene where she walks in front of a bus, but that’s neither here nor there. Behind the scenes, actress Montana Moorehead is sick of Celeste and wants her gone so she can finally have her moment in the sun, and she’s using her “feminine wilds” to get David to make it so.
I want to pause right here. Montana plays a nurse on the show that, at some point, is revealed to be Celeste’s daughter on the show. “The Sun Also Sets” is not “Grey’s Anatomy,” so I’m not sure how Montana, logically, thinks that she would be able to be the star of the show. But I digress. She wants to be the star and will find a way to do it by any means necessary.
Back to the show. David comes up with the bright idea to bring in Jefferey Anderson (played by Kevin Kline who is in my one of my favorite movies, “Wild Wild West”.) who played a character who actually died years before but was also a real life love interest of Celeste. Surely, this will drive Celeste off the show. Spoiler alert: It only gets better for the show and worst for Celeste after this. You see, her niece, Lori, finds her way on set and a whole host of chaos ensues when Lori starts to go on dates with Jeff.
Honestly, I thought this was going to be like “Showgirls.” I was looking for someone to push someone else down some stairs. Not what I got at all, but what I got was better! The show itself was dull, but the drama around the show was the real soap. What I love that this movie did was to make the drama behind the scenes actually part of the real soap opera they were shooting. How they did this, they don’t really say. The plot of ”The Sun Also Sets” isn’t really important to the story or the staff anyway. Well, it’s important to Rosie because she has to continue to write the show, but everyone else doesn’t seen to care about the continuity of the show, so I didn’t.
Also, for those who actually watched this movie back in ‘91, did anyone else notice that Celeste, Lori, and Montana went by their real name in the soap opera? They didn’t have a character name which I didn’t realize until the reveal at the end of the movie. Also, this is another movie, like “Mrs. Doubtfire,” where they set my girl Sally Field up to be the villain. Read my “Mrs. Doubtfire” review linked above for why she was the villain in that movie, but in this movie, and trying not give too much away, why did you let this charade go on so long without telling both parties involved long before the scene on set?
Speaking of the end of the movie, remember when I said I would come back to Cathy Moriarty? As soon as she started to speak, I said to myself, “I know that gravelly voice anywhere!” Four years later, Cathy Moriarty played alongside Christina Ricci and my forever President, Bill Pullman, in “Casper” as Carrigan Crittenden! I love when I can recognize someone from my childhood in another film.
Thank you, Brandi, for making me go look for this film. To Sally Field, I will never forgive you for what you did to Daniel. IYKYK. Lastly, Robert Downey, Jr. is fine. Still is. That’s all I wanted to say. He has a really nice face. Anyway, this movie was great. The twist was not one I expected but boy did it take me on a journey, albeit short. It’s a cute watch. You can rent it, if you haven’t seen it, but for those who remember this film, tell me what you thought!
