I had always heard that in her whole "acting" career, the popular singer only did one good performance, anything afterwards has been terrible, so I had to see what she was like in the good one, from director Susan Seidelman (A Cooler Climate). Basically Roberta Glass (BAFTA winning, and Golden Globe nominated Rosanna Arquette) is in a boring marriage to husband Gary (Mark Blum), who takes her for granted, and the only way she entertains herself is following personal ads titled "Despareatly Seeking Susan", following the progress of a couple. Then she spots that the couple are to meet in New York, so she seeks adventure and follows the ad to its source, and she spots Susan (Madonna), the free-spirit drifter, buys her jacket to emulate her idol and follows her on the way. On her following, Roberta knocks her head into a post, causing her to experience amnesia and forget who she is, when Dez (Aidan Quinn) comes along mistaking her for Susan, and agrees to help her get back on her feet. The real Susan meanwhile gets arrested briefly, and then finds out that her belongings have been taken, and follows any clues she can to find this stranger seeking her. Roberta finds a job working as a magician's assistant at the Magic Club, and also has a run-in with the mob character that wants to get his hands on the real Susan. After this attack, Roberta knocks herself back into her true self, and goes back to Dez to have a night of passion, and husband Gary meanwhile uses the real Susan to look for her. When he finds her, Gary is convinced that Roberta has become a prostitute, well, she has certainly fallen out of love for him, and she pulls herself together to catch the mobster who has stolen some precious earrings. In the end, Roberta and the real Susan finally meet, with the help of the newspaper personal ads, Roberta gives with her new love Dez, and the two women are hailed as heroes in the newspaper for returning the stolen earrings. Also starring Robert Joy as Jim, Laurie Metcalf as Leslie Glass, Anna Levine as Crystal, Will Patton as Wayne Nolan, Peter Maloney as Ian, Steven Wright as Larry Stillman D.D.S, John Turturro as Ray and Anne Carlisle as Victoria. You could criticise that Madonna is almost playing herself, but it doesn't matter, she makes her character likable, while Arquette is endearing as the other woman, the story is reasonable, there are some giggly moments, and Madonna's first number one "Into The Groove" plays, so while it is a little more for women, it is a fun screwball comedy romance thriller. Madonna was number 12 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and she was number 4 on The Ultimate Pop Star. Very good!
Review of Desperately Seeking Susan
