The Prince of Soap
Saippuaprinssi

Finland 2006 colour 97 min Helsinki-filmi

***

Comedy, drama, romance

cast: Pamela Tola (Ilona), Mikko Leppilampi (Kalle or Antero), Outi Mäenpää (Raakel), Juha Veijonen (Laaksonen), Janne Reinikainen (Vesa), Minttu Mustakallio (Eeva), Venla Saartamo, Jukka Puotila, Jani Volanen (director Tiainen), Marja Salo (Mari), Jukka-Pekka Palo (Mr. Kalela), Pete Lattu (Leo), Anna Paavilainen (Jonna), Pihla Penttinen (Tiina), Zarkus Poussa, Risto Kaskilahti, Sari Havas, Jami Hyttinen (angel), Kristiina Halttu (Reija or Seija), Tommi Korpela, Anu Koskinen
credits: dir. Janne Kuusi, script Aleksi Bardy (and prod. with Olli Haikka and Riina Hyytiä), DOP Pentti Keskimäki, music Ilkka Talasranta

Ilona is a young woman, who tries to make her living in a tiny but artsy theatre group. The bad thing is that almost no one wants to see their plays. Ilona looks for a real job but soon she finds herself from a scriptwriting team. The team makes scripts for a tv soap. The main character of the soap is handsome Antero, played by charming Kalle. Ilona falls in love with Kalle, but the soap’s producer, Raakel, is also in love with him. When Ilona starts to write her own life into the soap, everything gets really crazy.

The movie’s scriptwriter‐producer Aleksi Bardy has a history as soap writer himself. He has used it well to make this flick fun. Sadly, not all of the characters are nice to watch. Ilona and Kalle are fine, thanks to talented actors Pamela Tola and Mikko Leppilampi. But Raakel is over-acted monster without any realism. The same goes with some smaller roles, although some of them are really funny too (for example Ilona’s scriptwriter colleagues). Otherwise, the movie looks and sounds good; the storyline goes on smoothly… But there are no deeper thoughts, no reality, not much else but light comedy.

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