Soap

Director Pernille Fischer Christensen's Soap is rather shockingly unshocking, for so seemingly provocative a setup. After Charlotte (Trine Dyrholm) leaves her indifferent boyfriend, and moves into her own apartment, she strikes up an unusual friendship with her new neighbor, Veronica (David Dencik), a pre-op transsexual. Both are depressed, confused people, whose tentative relationship flirts with sexual desire, but the film never approaches real drama (nor trashy fun either, despite the title, which stems from the fact that Veronica is a fan of the daily TV soap operas). Although striving, one suspects, for a quiet seriousness and respectful approach to transsexualism,Soap ultimately becomes bogged down in staid solemnity. Connoisseurs of gloomy foreign films may enjoy this, but most everyone else can safely pass. Optional. (M. Johanson)