Sally Field

'Soapdish'Starring Sally Field, Kevin Kline and Robert Downey Jr.Directed by Michael Hoffman.Released by Paramount.Rated PG-13.** 1/2 stars. "Soapdish" dishes dirt, not soap. On a cheesily imagined network soap opera, it pays attention to who's sleeping with whom and for what; who hates whom and why; who's betrayed whom and how. It's office politics, show-biz style, turned into French farce and geek tragedy.It would help if Sydney Pollock's great "Tootsie" hadn't already trod the same ground more deftly in the recent movie memory.

'Not Without My Daughter'Starring Sally Field and Albert Molina.Directed by Brian Gilbert.Released by MGM.PG-13.*** 1/2 "Not Without My Daughter" has a junky made-for-TV title that may make you roll your eyes in contempt, but the movie has the clarity of nightmare to it, deeply unsettling, completely riveting and by the end exhausting and triumphant at once.The movie, derived from a book of the same dim title by Betty Mahmoody, tells a true story. Ms. Mahmoody, married to a cosmopolitan Iranian-born doctor 20 years separated from his heritage and living in the suburbs, accompanied her husband to his homeland in 1984.

NOT WITHOUT My Daughter'' is the kind of drama that has become commonplace on television. Fortunately, this one was done for the larger screen, carefully, brightly and with more suspense than any film really needs.''Not Without My Daughter'' is based on a true story, and that adds to its suspense, even if we know how it turned out. The woman, played by Sally Field in the film, told her story to Barbara Walters on television. She also wrote a book about her experiences.Familiarity with the facts, however, does not diminish the worth of the film.

IT HAPPENED THREE WEEKS AGO,as I was entering the lobby of a posh Washington hotel, one known to be frequented by celebrities visiting the nation's capital."