In the Soup: A chaotic, dusty bit of old-fashioned farce

Is it worth your time?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s British farce where people trip over rugs and shout in hallways, you might find something to like here. If you prefer movies that actually make sense, stay far away. This is definitely for the crowd that enjoys watching a house of cards fall down in slow motion.

There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from watching characters dig themselves into a hole they absolutely don't need to be in. The whole premise hinges on this couple deciding to play maid and butler just to impress a relative. Why? I still don't really know.

Ralph Lynn is doing his usual thing, which is basically vibrating with nervous energy for the entire runtime. Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it makes you want to reach into the screen and just tell him to sit down for five minutes. 😅

The rhythm of the chaos

The pacing is… well, it’s not really pacing. It’s more like a series of loud entrances and exits. There’s a scene about halfway through where someone hides behind a chair, and it goes on about thirty seconds too long. You can literally feel the actors waiting for their cue to pop out and yell something.

It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Life of the Party, though perhaps a bit less focused. Not that this movie cares much about focus.

The sets look like they were pulled together in an afternoon, which actually kind of helps. Everything feels a bit flimsy, matching the plot perfectly. There’s a door that squeaks in every single scene it appears in. I started counting how many times it opened. I stopped at seven.

Odd bits and pieces

• There is a moment involving a tea tray that is somehow the most high-stakes thing in the film.
• The dialogue is mostly just people talking over each other until someone says something silly.
• Watching this made me think about Thieves' Clothes, but only because they both feature people wearing things they shouldn't.

Don't look for a deep message here. There isn't one. The movie ends exactly when it runs out of rooms for people to hide in, and that feels like the most honest thing about the whole production.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely a movie. But if you’re bored on a rainy Tuesday, you could do worse than watching these people lie their way into a disaster. ☕️