Struggling, temperamental actors find that life can be a drag in Tootsie. Blending satire and sincerity, Tootsie works as a strong dramedy.
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) considers himself a great actor. Unfortunately, few people consider him for any Broadway or even off-off Broadway roles. It is not his talent that is in question. Rather, it is his temperament. As his frustrated agent George Fields (director Sydney Pollack) points out, Dorsey held up filming for a commercial and caused filming to go over schedule because he did not believe that his character would sit down.
Dorsey's character in said commercial? A tomato.
Dorsey stumbles into an opportunity thanks to Sandy Lester (Teri Garr), one of his acting students. He has been training her to audition for the soap opera Southwest General. Sandy is quickly dismissed. Michael Dorsey, in desperation for work and a chance to earn money to help his roommate Jeff Slater (Bill Murray) fund a play, auditions for the part. Now in full drag as "Dorothy Michaels", Michael Dorsey gets the role of hospital administrator Emily Kimberly.
Michael as Dorothy soon starts embracing the woman within. He does not like what he sees. Ham actor John Van Horn (George Gaynes) is bumbling and insists on hitting on all his female costars. Southwest General's director Ron Carlisle (Dabney Colman) is not much better. Van Horn at heart is merely clueless. Carlisle is downright sexist. He is also romantically involved with Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), who refers to her character as "the hospital slut". Julie, a single mother to a toddler, is quite sweet off camera. She loves both her daughter and her father Les (Charles Durning).
"Dorothy" soon takes America by storm for her portrayal of a stronger female role than usually seen on television. She starts bonding with Julie, which is complicated for several reasons. One reason is that Michael has fallen in love with Julie. Another is that he is attempting a romantic relationship with Sandy owing to his need for a dress. A third is that Les, a widower, has fallen in love with Dorothy. In all this, Julie ends up thinking that Dorothy is a lesbian, Sandy ends up thinking that Michael is gay, and Les (real name Leslie) ends up thinking that Dorothy would make for a good fiancée. As if all that were not enough, Southwest General wants to extend Dorothy's contract. That would force him to keep his cross-dressing act even longer. Will an unexpected live taping of Southwest General give Dorothy Michaels a chance to show his masculine side? What will the fallout of Michael coming out as a man be?
Prior to this, my second viewing of the film, my only real connection to Tootsie was how at one job that I had, our manager was nicknamed "Tootsie" by her very frustrated staff. Said manager was a woman by the way. She just bore an unfortunate resemblance to a taller Dustin Hoffmann in drag. Make of that what you will.
Tootsie is an intelligent comedy. It balances the farcical elements of a man playing a woman with more serious issues like sexism. Michael Dorsey sees this sexism on many fronts. He sees it in Southwest General's writing, where his character is asked to be more docile and willing to take the sexual advances of Van Horn's doctor. He sees it also in how Ron Carlisle uses the male crew's names but will refer to actresses like "Dorothy Michaels" as sweetheart, toots or "tootsie".
This is not to say that Tootsie, written by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal from a story by Gelbart and Don McGuire, is a screed. Far from it. Somehow, Carlisle came across at times almost as delightfully flustered. The film is certainly kind to George Gaynes' John Van Horn. Van Horn is not a bad man. He, I am tempted to say, isn't even sexist or chauvinistic. Instead, he is just dumb.
George Gaynes is an underappreciated element in Tootsie. His efforts at wooing Dorothy are hilarious. He calls himself an untalented has-been. "Were you ever famous?", Dorothy asks. "No", he replies, slightly befuddled. "Then how could you be a has-been?" Dorothy replies. He, in his defense, stops his efforts to woo Dorothy when Jeff comes home to their apartment. George, thinking that Jeff is Dorothy's boyfriend, sheepishly leaves. Later in Tootsie, his reaction to Dorothy exposing himself as Michael is a perfect punchline.
It is the perfect way to punctuate this wild scene. I think it is comparable to Joe E. Brown's closing line from Some Like It Hot, another gender-bending comedy.
Tootsie is filled with top-notch performances all around. Dustin Hoffmann received an Oscar nomination for his role as Michael Dorsey and Dorothy Michaels (in something of a joke, Hoffmann is billed twice as both characters). He is good all-around, playing the temperamental Michael Dorsey, Michael Dorsey playing "Dorothy Michaels" and Dorothy playing Emily Kimberly. Hoffmann has to play essentially several roles, sometimes simultaneously. He is wonderful when working with the equally strong Pollack as Michael's frustrated and flustered agent George Fields.
Dabney Colman, like George Gaynes, was so terribly underappreciated in his career. His Ron Carlisle was arrogant and at times dismissive. However, Colman made him almost likeable. I said "almost", for he still was not a pleasant or kind person. Still, it is a credit to Colman's skills that this can be seen as different from a previous male chauvinist pig role he played in 9 to 5. Bill Murray brought the right amount of eccentricity and sarcasm to Jeff, who is fully confident in his play Return to the Love Canal, no matter how oddball that play's actual premise is.
Charles Durning might have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Tootsie if he had not been nominated that same year for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He balanced Les' sincerity of affection for Dorothy with genuine shock and eventual forgiveness for the deception. Michael, appearing in Return to the Love Canal in regional theater, encounters Les at Les' favorite bar. Charles Durning's facial expressions are great. He shifts from pleasant to angry effortlessly.
We also see another future Oscar winner in a small role. As April Paige, another Southwest General starlet, Geena Davis has fun moments putting Michael/Dorothy in uncomfortable situations. Dorothy first sees April in her underwear while sharing a dressing room, putting the cross-dressing Michael in an awkward position. Later on, Dorothy tells April that "she" sees the younger cast members as daughters. She adds that she wants to give her daughters "tits". April looks up, perplexed, with Dorothy attempting to correct herself by saying "tips" repeatedly. The Freudian slip adds to the humor.
One of Tootsie's nine Oscar nominations was for the song It Might Be You, heard during a montage of Dorothy, Julie and Les spending time at Les' country home. It Might Be You is a nice, gentle song that is pleasing and delightful. More in keeping to the comedy is the title song, heard during a montage of "Dorothy Michael" becoming a star. Long before it became a musical, Tootsie had at least two good songs.
I do think that the extended section of "Uncle Dorothy" babysitting went on too long. I also wonder if Dustin Hoffmann was in a way playing a spoof of his public persona as the ultimate "brilliant but difficult actor". I struggled believing that Michael could fool Sandy into thinking that he wanted them to become lovers or that Sandy would willingly put up with his repeated failures to show up for their dates.
Those are minor issues. Tootsie is a strong, amusing film that will have one laughing and give people pause for thought. There's no "toot, toot, tootsie, goodbye" here.
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