Desperately Seeking Susan - Thoughts

Released way back in 1985, I’ve seen trailers of Desperately Seeking Susan, and told myself that I should at some point see the movie. About 2 weeks ago a friend recommended it to me saying it was a fun watch; with that I got around to renting the DVD and watching it last night. Desperately Seeking Susan is the title of the personal ad that Susan and Jim use to keep in touch with each other as they travel across the United States. Oblivious to them is Roberta a bored housewife who follows’ their communications and is in awe of their romantic lives. What starts as innocent admiration, turns into a case of mistaken identities, thanks to a random set of events and a bump on the head.


While predictable and silly at times, Desperately Seeking Susan is a fun and amusing romantic comedy all through. Captured beautifully is the spirit of the 80’s and the vibe of New York city at the time. To those familiar with comedies from the 80’s such as After Hours, you will perceive a certain sense of similarity. While simple for most part, the plot has a few twists and the characters are sufficiently diverse to keep things going. The movie rests very heavily on the characters and their sometimes stereotyped personalities; thanks to good performances all round Desperately Seeking Susan is pleasantly entertaining.

At the time of release Madonna was 27 years old, and was pretty much playing herself, in the Susan role. So on that note, it’s obvious as to why her character portrayal was watertight. Susan is a free spirited drifter who travels around the United States, forging new relationships with new people. In her hand was her funky suitcase and on her back was her trademark jacket. Madonna’s performance was brilliant and I can’t think of anyone else who might have been able pull off Susan’s carefree unattached role as well. Rosanna Arquette as Roberta also performed admirably; the innocent and idealistic dreaminess coming through in her eyes, expressions, moods and behavior well. For Aidan Quinn this was one of his very first major roles. Though a newcomer at the time, his portrayal of Dez was quite proficient. A very average man, already having to deal with a complicated break-up, forced to help out his friend, and in the entire process falling for Susan…. Or is it Susan? Gary Glass the stereotype spa and bathtub dealer played by Mark Blum was pretty good as well. Watching him would give the audience a good feel of why Roberta would be bored in her wealthy yet empty marriage.

Though the DVD I was watching was as US Region 1 release, owing to the early production date of the movie, specs were lesser than normal. Provided on the dual sided DVD disc were Standard and Widescreen variants of the movie. I watched the Widescreen version which was obviously formatted for home TV, and fit the screen perfectly with no letterboxing. Video was good, but don’t expect a crystal clear transfer; while moderately sharp for most part the picture quite lacked smoothness. Scenes shot at night in the dark alleyways etc. lacked definition quite a bit. All of this including the Mono Dolby Digital soundtrack are probably only owing to the dated release of the movie. Also being low budget it probably wasn’t digitally re-mastered recently. Unless watching a further degraded version of the movie, such as a pirated DVD or a DivX, the quality of this movie is sufficiently above acceptable.

My Recommendation: Watch It (A refreshing and funny look at the 80’s)