Desperately Seeking Susan

Dom Robinson reviews

Desperately Seeking Susan

Distributed by

MGM

    Cover

  • Cert:
  • Cat.no: 15801 DVD
  • Running time: 100 minutes
  • Year: 1985
  • Pressing: 2000
  • Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
  • Chapters: 32 plus extras
  • Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
  • Languages: 3 languages available
  • Subtitles: 10 languages available
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1
  • 16:9-enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: No
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Price: £19.99
  • Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Alternative Ending, Audio Commentary

    Director:

      Susan Seidelman

    (Desperately Seeking Susan, TV: Sex and the City)

Producers:

    Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford

Screenplay:

    Leora Barish

Music :

    Thomas Newman

Cast :

    Roberta Glass: Rosanna Arquette
    Susan: Madonna
    Dez: Aidan Quinn
    Gary Glass: Mark Blum
    Wayne Nolan: Will Patton
    Leslie Glass: Laurie Metcalf
    Larry Stillman D.D.S: Steven Wright
    Ray: John Turturro

“Desperately Seeking Susan”goes the newspaper ad in the personals column. Like a docusoap nearly fifteen yearsahead of its time, Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) is a ditzy blonde who hasbeen following the progress of Susan and Jim and their secret meetings.

She begins to take an unhealthy interest in the life of Susan (Madonna), followsher around, buys her used clothes, buys into her way of life and in a freak accident,becomes concussed and wakes up believing she is Susan herself, after being helped upby Jim’s friend Dez (Aidan Quinn).

While her head isn’t quite together, the jacket of Susan’s that she’s wearing containsa locker key containing plenty of stuff including some more-than-precious earings. She’salso tailed by dye-blonde staring madman Wayne Nolan (Will Patton) who wantsher dead when he thinks she’s the real Susan and is responsible for the death of a manin Atlantic City.

The film was one of Madonna’s earlier efforts and she’s fine in it, but then the roledoesn’t exactly stretch her acting talents. I could have said that she doesn’t get toflex her muscles much, but that’s just what the mum-of-two does these days. There arealso cameos from comedian Steven Wright and Coen brothers’ regular John Turturro.


Presented in its original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio, is anamorphic and free of grain andartifacts. There’s a few drop-outs in the print and it’s not a particularly dazzlingone, but it’s perfectly acceptable.The average bitrate is a high 7.79Mb/s, frequently peaking over 9Mb/s.

The Dolby Surround sound is fine and is mainly used for dialogue, plus the occasionaltune such as those mentioned in the extras below and Ms. Ciccone’s Into the Groovewhich made No.1 when this film was released in 1985.


Extras : Chapters :24 chapters for this DVD, which is fine, but MGM DVDs usually contain 32. Languages & Subtitles :Dialogue comes in three languages: English, French and German.Subtitles in 10: English and German (both have hard of hearing alternatives),as well as French, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese and Polish. And there’s more… :A 2-minute Trailer and a six-minute Alternate Ending start the extras.

There’s also a feature-length Audio Commentary from director Susan Seidelman,Barbara Boyle – the then senior vice president of production – and co-producersMidge Sanford and Sarah Pillsbury. It’s commented on at the start that they’reso pleased that “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” was picked to go over theopening credits and you can hear that as they talk, but… Erm.. hate to tell you thisgirls, in the film itself, they’ve used “One Fine Day”. Who’s winding who up?

Menu :Static and silent, but with a fun and colourful quality to the menus on view.


Overall, there are worse ways to pass 100 minutes, but is the film trying to get acrossthe message that stalking someone is okay as long as you get the chance to redeem yourselfat the end? or is it just a chick-flick?

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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