Desperately Seeking Susan is a 1985 comedy starring Madonna, Rosanna Arquette, Aidan Quinn, and Mark Blum in the lead roles, and John Turturro, Laurie Metcalf, Robert Joy, Will Patton, and Steven Wright in supporting roles. Giancarlo Esposito also had a very minor speaking role. It was directed by Susan Seidelman and was filmed in New York and New Jersey. In it, Arquette plays an unfulfilled upper-middle-class housewife named Roberta who reads the personal ads and becomes fascinated by communications between Susan (played by Madonna) and her boyfriend, Jim (played by Joy) that often begin with the line Desperately Seeking Susan. When one of the ads proposes they meet in Battery Park, Roberta goes to spy on the meeting and becomes fascinated by Susan's freewheeling lifestyle. Roberta ends up getting hit on the head, losing her memory, and believes herself to be Susan, and finds herself in danger when she is mistaken for Susan.
This is a single-disc release. It has a decent, but not great, A/V transfer. For the audio-nerds out there, the audio tracks are 2.0 digital tracks, which may not easily play on a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system without messing with the audio settings on your blu-ray player. The bonus content includes the film's trailer and alternate/extended ending. There is also a commentary track on the film by the director and the two main producers. The most interesting part of the commentary was hearing about the decision to cast Madonna, how her mega-stardom really hit as the movie was filming, and how they had to hire more security toward the end of filming because she was getting mobbed every time she was in public. When she was originally cast, she was still mostly popular in the NY dance club scene where she would perform. However, she released the Like a Virgin album while the movie was filming, and that, along with the release of this film really moved her from a star that had a couple of songs with radio play and videos on MTV into the superstar she became. One funny item from the commentary was one of the producers saying Madonna wanted to get into acting because she did not think she would be able to do the kind of performances she did in the clubs when she was 40, but she would be able to act. Of course, she was playing stadium shows well into her 50s and has only been in a handful of movies after making this one.
The movie is a good comedy, but it is a bit dated. It very much has the feel of a 1980s romantic comedy, but it had a good enough script that it is enjoyable even years later. It is rated PG-13, but it could have easily earned an R-rating. Rosanna Arquette is topless in a couple of scenes, but in shadow and obscured so you do not see much; Madonna is in a see-through bra in a couple of scenes, and there is a lot of swearing and smoking. It is also interesting to see Laurie Metcalf, John Turturro, and Giancarlo Esposito early in their careers. Madonna was okay, despite never having acted before. But she was almost playing a fictionalized version of herself, so she did not have to do a lot. Arquette did most of the heavy acting work, even though she became overshadowed by Madonna's growing popularity. Ultimately, while it is not the best comedy of the 1980s, it is still worth checking out.
