Soof 3 is the third film in the Soof film series. This film is directed and partly written by Anne de Clercq, the director of Hallo Bungalow and she has also directed some episodes of the Soof TV series.
In the film, Soof (Lies Visschedijk) seems to have everything in order in her life. All is well with her work and children and despite being single she seems to be happy. This all changes when Soof receives bad news about her health.
Because her daughter has returned to the Netherlands with a new lover from India and her other children seem happy too, Soof decides to keep her bad new one to herself first. Soof tries to help her children with their positive plans for the future, in order to hide her own bad news below. Soof now has to see how long she can keep this hidden before others start to notice that her health is deteriorating.
For a change, director Anne de Clercq, together with the other writers of the film, tries to turn this third Soof film more into a drama. Unfortunately, they often seem to have trouble with this, because the comedy often manages to overshadow the drama in the film. So they end the film a bit like a standard romantic comedy with light drama moments. The comedy is also on the predictable or uncomfortable side, which often makes it hard to laugh.
Unfortunately, the story itself is also a bit on the predictable side. When you have seen the trailer of the film, or are familiar with your standard Dutch romantic comedies, you can predict what will happen in the film. They also made the story unnecessarily too big and filled it with too many different storylines, not all of which were really necessary in the beginning of the film. With a better story, the movie could have been clearer and shorter which could have made it more entertaining in the end.
Thanks to the standard script of the film, the cast members don't really get many opportunities to do something special with their acting. Lies Visschedijk tries to give her character a bit more drama, but these too are often overshadowed by comedy elements. This is a shame after three films and a TV series about the character Soof. The rest of the film cast doesn't really come across as special either. If they had chosen fewer characters in the front of the film, some would have had more of a chance to come forward with their characters in a more special way.
