Spotlight
Spotlight Date: 18-April-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Like televangelists, plastic surgeons, psychiatrists, and drug dealers, Hollywood has made a fortune off of people's dissatisfaction with their lives. Films about breaking free from stifling relationships or social positions are legion, and the fact that they often take comic form suggests that humor is necessary to reconcile with our old lives (if we find release) or to refrain from violent rampage or stark raving lunacy (if we don't). Although the romantic comedy "Desperately Seeking Susan" screams 1980s, with its intrusive pop soundtrack and puerile fascination with sex, it fits snugly into the age-old tradition of addressing discontent with a lighthearted fantasy about starting anew.
The movie follows the unlikely adventures of a repressed New Jersey housewife named Roberta (Rosanna Arquette). Mired in a boring marriage to a shallow hot tub salesman (Mark Blum), Roberta nourishes her inner Juliet by following the drama and romance of the personal ads, particularly the ongoing saga of a couple named Jim and Susan who periodically arrange rendezvous through the newspaper. One day, Roberta decides to witness a meeting between the lovers herself, but when she arrives on the scene she suffers a blow to the head and wakes up thinking she's Susan. To make matters worse, the real Susan (Madonna) has become embroiled in a dangerous affair involving theft and murder, which makes Roberta's situation all the more precarious. Inevitably, she receives assistance in her amnesiac state from a sexy guy who is entirely the opposite of her husband (Aidan Quinn), and the sparks begin to fly as all parties stumble toward recognition and resolution.
"Desperately Seeking Susan" moves along with an easy charm that compares well with the brittle cuteness of recent romantic comedies. (Credit goes to a well-chosen group of actors who inhabit their roles with little sign of effort.) This makes the movie pleasant enough for a rainy-day rental, but I couldn't help thinking while watching it what a facile world view it presents --- even more facile than the average romantic comedy, which is really saying something. The crux of the story involves Roberta and Susan venturing outside their accustomed spheres, but although at least one of them emerges facing a different future, neither really leaves herself behind. You would expect Roberta to shed the inhibitions that have heretofore kept her in check, and yet she remains a meek, repressed little thing even when decked out in trampish mid-'80s Madonna wear, roaming the seedy streets of the Lower East Side. The story doesn't even go for the usual panacea of the genre --- instantaneous real love --- but portrays Roberta's amour as, basically, a great romp in the sack. The heady aura of illicit, liberating romance vanishes as soon as her bedroom savior, thinking she's someone she's not, admires the fact that he never knows what she's going to say next. Roberta may take a walk on the wild side, but in the end she's still Roberta, who doesn't belong in a bohemian flat above a Chinese restaurant and will always say exactly what you expect her to say.
Ultimately, the movie asks us to believe that simply changing our everyday surroundings can lead to self-fulfillment (soul mate optional). In a world where a lot of people would like to leave themselves behind, this notion ought to remain popular for a good long time, but it strikes me as the last-ditch hope of the truly desperate.
Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.
