Plenty of films, at the time of their release, seem to only be focused on one thing: appealing to the audiences of their time. However, lots of movies tend to contain messages and certain themes that span generations without the filmmakers ever intending so. This idea is what stood out to me the most throughout Sydney Pollack's iconic Tootsie, a hilarious and well-intentioned film that has become known for its fantastic performances and often silly story. It is very difficult to make a film about a man dressing in drag, especially in the 1980s, without resorting to insult or making that culture the butt of the joke, but I believe that this film, purposely or not, handled it excellently. Not only did Sydney Pollack make a genuinely funny movie, but he was able to show off his masterful filmmaking skills by telling his audience a completely whole and ceaselessly entertaining story.
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is a revered New York actor who has devoted his life to teaching the up and coming students of the acting world. When he realizes that he is not as sought after as he once thought, he dresses in drag and takes on the identity of Dorothy Michaels on the set of a cheesy soap opera in order to do two things: prove himself as an actor and pay his bills. Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal's script throughout this film proves itself to be incredible. I adore their writing style and I could definitely feel how a lot of the plot choices were motivated. This type of narrative structuring might be considered standard for what is now the typical romantic comedy or coming of age film, but the way that these screenwriters handle the subject matter is quite impressive. This film has everything that one could expect from a genre such as this, including all of its token characters and the respectively amazing performances that came with them. Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, and Bill Murray are all so damn good in this film and help to elevate this story to a certain star status that I did not expect it to achieve. Not only did it win an Academy Award for Lange, but the rest of the cast held themselves to a fantastic standard. Murray's chemistry with Hoffman as his best friend also genuinely surprised me because I have never thought of these two actors being in the same range of film before. This film definitely focuses on its writing more so than its technicals, but the cinematography from Owen Roizman actually caught my eye many times. Not because any of his shots were particularly beautiful or well composed, but his use of movement and zooms reminded me of much more modern camera work that is seen in film and television today.
While the script for Tootsie still contained a few jokes about men kissing men or men being in situations that their strictly heterosexual selves would feel uncomfortable in, that kind of humor was honestly to be expected. However, this film almost normalizes that culture and makes its characters accept what is happening without coming off as directly offensive. The writers did a fantastic job of using the humor to actually get their message out and while it is very easy to go down the transphobic road full of horribly ill-mannered drag humor, this film expands on that world surprisingly nicely. I love how this film gets the character of Dorsey to actually experience the inequalities of being a woman, especially at that time, and especially working in film and television. All of the horrible treatment and degrading comments that they were given occurred directly to Dorsey (or rather, Dorothy) and this made his character so interesting because we could see how drastically he developed and changed his previous behaviors and views about women. This movie never tries to completely tackle this issue but the way that Pollack frames this story around this central theme while still being blended beautifully with the comedy is masterful. Pollack's direction is stupendous and he definitely knows how to address these issues with a timely and funny story. The performance from Hoffman in this film is one of his absolute best and the movie definitely would not have been the same if not for his comedic timing and unmatchable charisma. Hoffman was perfect as Dorsey, stealing every scene, yet he was perfect as Dorothy as well. The way that he pulls off double duty with such ease, eventually turning his characters into one is such fantastic acting. He definitely made this film and it's even better for this audience to see his amazing range.
Tootsie is one of the best comedies of the 1980s and features so many things that other films of the time could only dream of pulling off. This has easily become my new favorite performance from Dustin Hoffman and the way that he pulls off double duty throughout this film while still making both of his characters incredibly complex is something that can not be done very well in comedies today. This movie is not one that I would have expected to stand the test of time but frankly, all the better that it has.
My Rating: ★★★★
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