Everybody is "Desperately Seeking Susan," but nobody realizes they're not looking for the same person in this 1985 quirky comedy starring Roseanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, and Laurie Metcalf. The film was directed by Susan Seidelman from a script by Leora Barish.

In this very clever story, Roberta (Arquette) is a bored housewife with a rich fantasy life who envies a woman named Susan (Madonna). Susan's boyfriend is always leaving her notes in the personals column about where to meet. Before long, Roberta is showing up at the meeting places and actually starts stalking Susan. When Susan pays for a pair of boots that she wants with her unique leather jacket, Roberta buys it and starts wearing it. All this could have been harmless fun except for three things: 1) Susan is a con artist, and she's stolen Egyptian artifacts she mistook for earrings from a guy in Atlantic City, who ended up dead at the bottom of his hotel; 2) Susan was seen (from the back) wearing her jacket in the hallway of the hotel by a mobster who wants the artifacts; and 3) Roberta is in an accident, and when she wakes up, she has amnesia. A friend (Aidan Quinn) of Susan's boyfriend who came to the meeting place to check on the real Susan as a favor thinks Roberta is Susan.

This is such a fun movie, with much of the comedy being in the situation rather than in the dialogue. Not only that, it's totally '80s, right down to Madonna's leggings, and brought back a lot of great memories.

The acting is very good, and one wonders why Madonna didn't continue in this vein rather than trying to become a great dramatic actress. She's perfect in this off-beat role as well as being beautiful, exotic, trashy, and sexy. She also would have been excellent as Roxy in "Chicago" if the film had been made back in the '70s, when it was originally supposed to be done. She might then have had a very interesting film career.

Though "Desperately Seeking Susan" was made 23 years ago, Roseanna Arquette hasn't changed much. She's excellent as the quiet, dying to be free, fantasy-driven Roberta. Aidan Quinn gives his usual good performance as a poor sap over his head. He doesn't know how lucky he is - he could have gotten involved with the real Susan! Highly recommended, especially if you were a young adult in the '80s.

Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) is a simple housewife who is fascinated with Susan (Madonna). Susan is a free-spirited grifter, and her boyfriend Jim (Robert Joy) puts messages in newspaper personal ads for her. Roberta decides to follow the latest romantic ad to their rendezvous. When Jim leaves for an out of town gig, Roberta starts following Susan around. She buys her jacket in a second hand store, and finds a locker key in it. Little does Roberta know but there's a killer (Will Patton) after Susan for a pair of valuable earrings. Jim sends his friend Dez (Aidan Quinn) to look after Susan. When Roberta hits her head, she gets amnesia. Dez doesn't really know what Susan looks like and assumes Roberta is Susan.

It's a fun 80s movie and Madonna isn't asked to do too much acting. She is basically herself as the street smart NYer, and she's great at it. That's why this movie is kinda fun. Rosanna Arquette was a relative unknown back then. She's not really a housewife type but her character needs to have a passing resemblance to Madonna. It's also great to see all the NY locations from the 80s.

It takes awhile to set up the rom-com with Arquette and Aidan Quinn. Roberta is suffering from amnesia and she can't really commit to the rom-com. Aidan Quinn is too nice of a guy. Together they form a rather bland couple. Madonna is still the more fun part of the movie. There could be more Madonna music. It has her big hit song 'Into the Groove'. Somebody should have told director Susan Seidelman that wall-to-wall Madonna music could have livened up the movie. As a comedy, it has its moments. There are no comedians in the main cast. The funniest line has to be "How do you use the birds?"

I had heard about Susan Seidelman's "Desperately Seeking Susan" for years, but only now got around to seeing it. Admittedly it's a silly movie, but very much an enjoyable one. The contrast between Roberta's supposedly ideal life and the seedy world inhabited by Susan says a lot about our country (even if it only tickles the funny bone).

Rosanna Arquette and Madonna put on some great performances, as do the other cast members. It turns out that Mark Blum (Gary) died of COVID* a few months ago. I hadn't even heard about his death.

Anyway, it's a fun movie, if a bit dated. Other cast members who got more famous later on are Aidan Quinn, Laurie Metcalf, John Turturro and Michael Badalucco (most recently appeared as the friend's dad on the Netflix series "Never Have I Ever").

*We have this pandemic in 2020, while at the time of the movie's release, AIDS was the pandemic. As I once heard, history doesn't always repeat itself but sometimes it rhymes.