Tootsie

Tootsie

Transvestism, or the act of a man dressing up as a woman, being used for the purposes of comedy has almost never worked in a mainstream form, mainly because we are being told that merely the act in and of itself and who is engaging in it is supposed to be the sole thing that’s funny about it, when really it strikes mainstream audiences as coming across being rather creepy and in particular makes heterosexual males start to wonder just what exactly are they doing in watching material like this. Thus the downfall of virtually everything from Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert to To Wong Fu, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar to The Birdcage as these films would fall more into the niche of being homosexual cult items. The exceptions of course are Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, with its main characters doing so to hide out from criminals after a failed heist and with the ethereal presence of Marilyn Monroe on hand to balance the doubts of any male hormones along with this 1982 release, overrated in some circles as being “the best comedy of the 80s” (despite a slew of Oscar nominations) but which turned even the standard conventions of drag comedies inside out due to a smart, funny script that ultimately explored the dynamics of relationships between men and women in how they treat each other (with not an actual gay character anywhere to be found) and the winning conceit that the title character is obviously not gay himself, but rather a struggling (and arrogant) middle aged actor who is doing this because he is desperate for the work. Therefore it comes as little to no surprise that much of the concept and development of this film was actually spearheaded by star Dustin Hoffman himself, in many ways because he wanted to satirize both the life led by struggling actors as he used to be as well as the public’s tendency to readily accept any hot new star on a mundane genre such as daytime soap operas simply because of the fact that that person is “different”. Much of this can be reflected by the fact that director Sydney Pollack basically just turned Hoffman loose on the set to play his role anyway that he pleased, resulting in a Best Actor Oscar Nomination and the showcasing of early scenes that almost seem quite autobiographical of Hoffman’s leaner days in the profession. His Michael Dorsey is shown blowing audition after audition as we learn of his reputation for being difficult and always arguing with his directors (which he really did onset with Pollack, a lot) over how to interpret his characters, yet still being so arrogant that he has seemingly convinced many younger actors that he is a worthwhile acting coach and teacher as we see him instructing them in (hopefully not paid) sessions basically giving them the same bad advice that has kept him out of the limelight for so long. Turns out ultimately that the entire NYC acting “community” that he belongs to are nothing more but a shallow bunch of parasites, with the only people that do care for him at all being his playwright best friend and roommate (Bill Murray, whose name was kept out of both the opening credits and all promotional materials for the film out of fear that people would associate it with his “slob” comedies such as Meatballs and Caddyshack) and his on again / off again girlfriend (Teri Garr, copping a Supporting Actress nomination for one of the most thankless roles in comedy history), an anxious worrywart who stresses over her next audition just as much as she stresses over the next stages of her love life. One day, after bringing Garr to a soap opera audition where she becomes exasperated over being quickly turned down, he hits upon the insane idea of going all out into becoming a woman himself in order to not only snag the part, but also proving that he is really the greatest actor that he knows by accepting that he has to stay in character 24/7 around the set and fool everybody constantly, with the only ones in on his secret being Murray and his own fed up agent (Pollack, stepping in front of the camera here and being brilliantly funny in his own right) who thinks that Hoffman is absolutely crazy for trying to pull this off but still playing along anyway because it’s money in his pocket. Once his “Dorothy Michaels” (still nonetheless a garish, gargoyle-like caricature of an aging Southern belle) finds herself working on an actual professional set, the world that these actors and crew occupy seems to become an entirely different community for him, as Hoffman encounters the long time hambone lead actor with a propensity for forcing himself unto all the actresses (George Gaynes, best known as Commandant Lassard from the Police Academy movies but tragically underrated for his work here), the hot young ingénue whom he shares a dressing room with (Geena Davis in her first ever role), the sexist pig of a director who flippantly gives the new actress the title nickname (Dabney Coleman doing it better than anybody else), the uptight female producer who nonetheless backs up Dorothy to be on the show (Doris Belack), and the completely gorgeous, sexy and soft young female nurse star whom obviously everybody there has a crush on (Jessica Lange at the absolute peak of her physical beauty filling the eye candy Monroe part for males perfectly and winning the Supporting Actress Oscar as a result). Everything would appear to be in place for Hoffman to fool everybody and make enough money to fund the staging of Murray’s play for both himself and Garr to star in, but there quickly appears to be a problem: Turns out that “Dorothy’s” intended role on the soap to be a supposedly strong female administrator who becomes just another foil for Gaynes and the other males to take advantage of is becoming subverted by Hoffman’s tendency to go off script and completely improvise the character into being an ACTUAL strong female who won’t take any shit from anybody and standing up to anyone who tries to walk all over her, including Coleman’s director (who gets many of the film’s funniest moments solely through reaction shots), with the biggest irony being that it probably comes from Hoffman’s own masculine tendencies coming to the fore in order to keep himself from feeling well, too gay. Fortunately, “Dorothy’s” mock feminist adlibs are allowed to stay in the show (and the rest of the cast seems to gain a renewed energy) as the show rises in the ratings with the newfound popularity being attributed to its new star. But complications arise when Hoffman finds himself falling in love with Lange, who has taken to “Dorothy” as both a new best friend and an almost maternal figure (since her own mother had died when she was young) even as she tries to play matchmaker between Hoffman and her lonely father (Charles Durning, also very good) who warms to the idea of proposing marriage to “Dorothy”, all while Hoffman is trying to transition his “real” girlfriend Garr to the demoted level of merely being a “good friend” and Murray is starting to become worried about his own reputation when it comes to him being seen living with a cross dresser. This all leads to Hoffman becoming desperate to find a way out of the show even as he watches Lange suffer through a crumbling relationship with Coleman, who admits to “Dorothy” that he’s a sleaze who doesn’t treat her right, but (in perhaps the movie’s best dialogue exchange) laments that way too often women somehow want much more out of a relationship than just simply to have fun together. It all leads up to the surreal yet hilarious climactic scene, followed up by Hoffman trying to do some damage control over all the people whom he’s hurt with his little ruse (and a final scene that’s maybe just a bit too pat), but in the end overall much of this actually works, with Hoffman’s manic energy really carrying the day here as he learns that living life (albeit temporarily) as a woman was really all the education that he needed to understand women while being a man, complete with all the charm and humor that can be expected from a cast such as this (even Murray’s little asides as the roommate score pretty big) and while “best comedy of the 80s” is such a lofty praise that realistically one can’t even begin to bestow that honor upon it (despite the Oscar pedigree), this is still a quality film that takes a concept that would most likely drive many (male) viewers away from it (and still does) and yet still makes it work as being a smart, witty commentary on heterosexual relationships and preconceptions in how they are handled by both men and women in the 80s and even still are by them to this day…

9/10

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