WHO'S THAT GIRL: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
When Nikki Finn (Madonna) is released from prison for a murder she did not commit, she wants to clear her name. Given the task of driving her from prison to the bus station which will take her to her mother's place in Philadelphia, is gauche tax attorney Loudon Trout (Griffin Dunn), whose boss Simon Worthington (John McMartin) just happens to be his future father in law. Loudon's wedding to Wendy (Haviland Morris) is planned for the next day, but before then, Loudon has many obstacles to overcome, including collecting a tiger for eccentric collector Montgomery Bell (Sir John Mills) and shake the hoods and undercover cops who are now on his tail.

Review by Louise Keller:
The storyline is simply bizarre, but somehow all the crazy elements fall together in one appealing madcap frolic in this 1987 Madonna vehicle that ends up being more than the sum of its parts. Of course, Madonna's girl of the title is the centre of our focus, as she flaunts thick black eyebrows with a short mop of platinum blonde hair and wears an assortment of ill-matching clothes including black studded leather with fishnets and a white tutu skirt that rivals the controversial one worn by Bjork. She speaks in a high pitched cross between The Nanny and a shrill Monroe and looks as though she is enjoying every single crazy minute.

The cartoon credits tell us the back story in which Nikki Finn is set up for murder and locked in the slammer with a safe deposit key around her neck. When Griffin Dunn's yes-man tax attorney Loudon Trout is told by his future father in law Simon (John McMartin) to put ex-con Nikki Finn on the bus to Philadelphia, little does he know that his life is about to change. With a rare growling tiger from Patagonia in the back seat of his future mother in law's convertible rolls Royce, he picks up Nikki, who demands to be taken shopping. Well, her idea of shopping is actually shop-lifting - in a clothes and music store before cleaning up Cartier. Meanwhile there are two undercover cops driving a conspicuous red Porsche in pursuit as they make a detour to Harlem and so it goes on.

At one point, Loudon suddenly takes off his bookish glasses for no reason, which we assume is to make him suddenly more attractive. It seems to work, because before we know it, he is kissing Madonna and there is some doubt on the impending nuptials that Loudon has with Wendy (there's a running gag in which taxi drivers all claim to have 'had Wendy' in their cab). John Mills makes a cameo as the eccentric collector of endangered animals who has a Brazilian forest on the roof of his New York apartment and Dunn is suitably gawkish as Trout. As for Madonna, well you can't keep your eyes off her. Who is that girl indeed!

Published July 17, 2008