Desperately Seeking Susan

Bluesky

There’s a certain level of celebrity in which everything is expected to come together naturally, genius in one field extending to at least a measure of ability in others. Singing, dancing, modelling, producing – all these things, Madonna Ciccone could do. As for acting – well, that was where it all went horribly wrong. If you haven’t seen Shanghai Surprise, well, it’s probably best to keep it that way. Desperately Seeking Susan is the one film that gets away with including her, largely because director Susan Seidelman has her play something close to herself, whilst also limiting her screentime. This also serve to preserve the mystique she was then working hard to develop, and she glitters on the sidelines as the soulful work is left to Rosanna Arquette.

Arquette plays Roberta, a meek little thing who gets pushed around and exploited by practically everyone, not least her scuzzy husband Gary (Mark Blum). One of her few pleasures comes from reading the personal ads in the paper, and it’s there that she keeps track of her idol, the titular Susan (Madonna), a woman who travels around the ‘States leaving clues for her boyfriend Jim (Robert Joy) to follow. When Susan visits New York City, this obsession turns into stalking, and she buys a jacket that Susan has traded in at a vintage boutique. Unfortunately, this leads to her attracting the attention of dangerous people. A head injury then causes amnesia, and Jim’s friend Dez (Aidan Quinn), who has been sent to meet Susan, assumes that that’s who she is.

The thriller plot that winds its way around the romcom core of this film leaves a few things to be desired, with off-the-shelf mobsters who get no room to develop and something of a second rate TV cop show vibe. The rest works fairly well, however, with a sweet romance developing between Roberta and Dez – leading to guilt for the latter, who is afraid that he’s stealing his best friend’s girl. When alarm grows about Roberta’s disappearance and Susan joins the search for her, her influence brings out a different side of Gary, who begins to realise both what a bad husband he’s been and also that he’s not really any happier in his marriage than his wife is. Roberta, meanwhile, struggles to cope outside her comfort zone but slowly acquires the ability to assert some control over her life.

Though her character initially comes across as a pale imitation of the woman she wants to be, Arquette has the skill to keep us interested in her, livening things up with her gift for comic timing. She and Quinn have a natural chemistry, carrying their scenes without the need for big drama, which is important because we have to get past not only Roberta’s marriage but also the evident crush she has on Susan. Madonna’s scenes mostly revolve around play of one sort or another, with an easy appeal that doesn’t ultimately seem like it would satisfy her fans for long. Still, there's plenty of energy to entertain for an hour and a half.

New York in the Eighties contributes some of the film’s iconic imagery, but it’s Santo Loquasto’s costumes that are perhaps the most memorable element, contributing significantly to one of the pop star’s most famous looks. They give the film a sense of glamour out of proportion to everything else. It’s selling a lifestyle, inviting viewers to be as dazzled as its heroine, and by way of this persuading them that what Roberta finds instead ought to be within anyone’s reach.

Source