Review of Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) by Jennifer S — 03 Apr 2010

Devilishly, dramatically eighties and that's a huge part of why I loved it so much. Featuring Madonna back when everyone thought she could be a good actor, I was hooked by Susan's obnoxiousness: garb, attitude, the way she leached off of everybody yet felt no guilt about it (part of me just wishes that I could just not give a shit like that.) Roberta was, of course, Susan's foil: innocent, pampered and living that suburban dream. I guess I can buy the bored housewife thing. I felt like Roberta's situation was very reminiscent of Candyman, where the well-off woman with the classic sleazy white-man husband gets into a butt load of trouble because she sniffs it out herself and winds up with a fantastic adventure on her hands. This is fine and dandy for Roberta. Not for Helen so much, given the ending of that movie. But whatever. I just thought Roberta's stalking Susan was a little more than just weird. Following her movements in the newspaper is one thing, tailing her to buy her coat and watch her from a distance at the pier is another. Once I got past that, combined with the unrealistic complete loss of her memory once she hits her head on the lamp post, I was able to get into the plot a little bit more and stop the constant attempted reconciliation between myself, the movie, and so-called real life.

I loved the scenes throughout the whole movie that painted the picture of who Susan is and what she stands for. Nothing seems to phase her, and no one questions the way that in the eighties, piling random accessories and colors together haphazardly is a completely acceptable mode of fashion.

Background characters include the African-American man with the bongos (who brings the seemingly off-screen music, amusingly, to the scene around Roberta ~ non-diegetic to diegetic), the foreign characters at the beach with their long flowing robes, and the creepy bald man at the rave who kept aggressively dancing in Gary's face. Randomness goes a long way for a movie. These nameless figures had me chuckling where I needed a chuckle most. A lot of the credit for humor also goes to Gary's sister, played by Laurie Metcalf (I kept thinking, there's Roseanne's sister! Say hello to Roseanne for me!). She acts a lot like she does in Roseanne, with dramatic arcs in her tone of voice as well as this predisposition to jump to conclusions. She helps Gary reveal, though his admittance to having an affair, just how small and worthless a husband he is. This cleans Roberta's act up before she goes on to make out with, and do,.

There were several tender moments in the movie that felt very endearing. The dialog with Leslie Glass talking to her brother in the kitchen, ending with his exclamation of "I feel, I feel!" was one of them; the moments where Roberta and Ian kiss for the first time, with the saxophone playing in the background, was another. On one hand, these scenes seem almost obviously/deliberately inserted to make the whole thing more genuine - but on the other, they are genuine in and of themselves and I wouldn't have it any other way. Watching the movie the second time around, I appreciated them, and this movie, a lot more. I loved how romantic Roberta and Ian became in that blissful eighties cinematic way. Ian is such a good-natured but rough-around-the edges guy and certainly my type..

And to foil him, Wayne Nolan was the perfect annoying villain. He sure as hell was blonde and he sure as hell had enough claws to teeter just this side of irritating into the zone of being "oh yeah, he does want to kill her, we better watch out!". Again, the second-time factor allowed me to see how many times he'd shown up to stalk Susan/Roberta. He is oftentimes shown as just being one of the members of an audience, or in the street, without the menacing music to back him up necessarily just yet. I liked that.

Of course Roberta ditches Gary; of course Susan toys with him a bit in all his picket-fence glory before the action all begins. I found it slightly funny that Roberta appears to have been practicing her magic act (because she knows what she is doing the second time around) but there is never any time we see her bothering to pick up the cage of doves again. It was one of those things to notice closely.

Watch this if you love the eighties and if you like to have fun - you won't regret it!