Less than the sum of its parts but tries its best to act as a quirky love storyĭirector Susan Seidelman made a few very 80s looking comedies that are not exactly classics, but watching them now really capture the time. There's barely any huge laughs going on in this and there's not too many scenes of Ulysses and Frankie together
Yet the android looks exactly like Peters and although he's specifically designed to follow orders like a machine by mimicking and reciprocating human emotion he ends up falling in love with herįrom then on it complicated things for both of them Peters is hoping Congress will fund his research Then a scientist Jeff Peters invents the Ulysses Android for Chemtech Laboratory to be the ultimate service android looking for radiation, space travel, and safetyįrankie is more used to promoting people not hardware but this could prove good for her career Public relations expert Frankie Stone has a great career, good friend, and an understanding mother to a degree Susan Seidelman, director of 'Desperately Seeking Susan' makes a romantic comedy meets robotic science starring John Malkovich and Ann Magnusun Right was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on April 1, 2003.It's hard to meet mr. The film received mixed reviews from critics, as it holds a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 15 reviews. Laurie Metcalf as Sandra "Sandy" McCleary.As the lack of human contact of a seven-year space mission will not be a hardship for him due to asociality, Jeff decided to go into space while the android takes his place on Earth so Ulysses and Frankie (who by now are deeply in love) can be together. However, Ulysses appears at Frankie's front door during the launch Jeff actually presented that final speech himself, having realized his creation has become more empathic than him. She attempts to say goodbye on launch day by using her connections with a former client and boyfriend Steve Marcus, a candidate for Congress, but she only sees Ulysses during his farewell speech, in which he bemoans humanity's difficulty in forming relationships, both platonic and romantic. Frankie is fired from her job and forbidden contact with Ulysses or anyone on the project. Ulysses short-circuits and crashes into the swimming pool, turning the occasion into a public relations disaster. Trish's jealous TV-star husband crashes the wedding as well and gets into a fight with Ulysses. Frankie persuades Jeff to come, but Ulysses again absconds from the lab and gate-crashes the wedding. Frankie's mother Estelle Stone, ( Polly Bergen) learns from Frankie's ex-boyfriend's mother that Frankie has a doctor boyfriend (Jeff) and expects Frankie to bring him to the wedding of Frankie's sister Ivy Stone.
After escaping he encounters human society at a shopping mall, buys a tuxedo, goes on a date with a woman named Sandy McCleary ( Laurie Metcalf) who thinks he is Jeff, reducing her to an emotional wreck, and then loses his head (literally) over Frankie's best friend Trish ( Glenne Headly) who has taken refuge in Frankie's apartment after walking out on her husband who is a star on the popular daytime soap opera New Jersey.įrankie also develops feelings for the android and befriends Jeff on a lesser level. At one point the android impersonates Jeff in order to leave the laboratory, and stows away in Frankie's Chevrolet Corvair. However, in his interaction with her, the android develops emotions and develops better social skills than the scientist himself. As a part of her job, she must get to know the android better, in order to "humanize" him for the benefit of the project's sponsors in Congress. He develops the Ulysses android (which looks exactly like him) for the purpose of space exploration, since an android would not be affected by the isolation.įrankie Stone ( Ann Magnuson) is hired to do public relations for the project.
He dreams of deep space exploration, which would be difficult because of the lack of human contact for long periods of time.
Jeff Peters ( John Malkovich) is an emotionally repressed scientist who cannot stand others because of their intellectual inferiority.