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Visitors Review

elwinter 2012-05-19 13:50:37

Actor cross-dresses to find work, causes much mayhem and becomes a better man

Dustin Hoffman plays a "difficult" out-of-work actor, who dresses as awomanand auditions for a soap opera out of desperation. He gets the part, andhis deception leads to a bewildering array of complications: He falls foranother cast member (played by Jessica Lange), her father falls for him,anacting friend is depressed she didn't get the part herself, and so on.Thescene where the soap must broadcast live, and his character unveilshim/herself to the astonishment of all, is perhaps one of the funniestmoments in film. Being a comedy, all ends well. Hoffman has commented hewas disappointed he didn't make a better looking "woman".

2012-05-19 11:12:24

Toots is Tops!

I'll start by saying that I am not a huge fan of Dustin Hoffman or Bill Murray but don't miss this movie! It's a great commentary and spoof of soaps and acting classes and actors as well. A really lovely romantic under-current and story to go along with Dustin's she/he role. I love how he grows and learns about himself and the opposite sex by becoming Dorothy. It's such a wonderful film on so many levels!Yes, it's crushing that the DVD doesn't have tons of cool extra features, but since my VHS copy is worn thin, it's still nice to have!Get it, it's a super movie!

werefox08 2012-05-10 09:29:30

Lady Hoffman.....take a bow

Tootsie is one of those very rare movies. A comedy that is actuallyfunny. A comedic motion picture that makes you.....laugh. These areabout as rare as a total eclipse of Uranus. The last 20 years ofRom---Coms have been dreadful. They really should be called Roms.Anyway here we have the real thing ...a funny movie. Dustin Hoffmandoes what a lot of strange men secretly do (and some "normal" men wantto do..!!). He dresses up as a lady.......The cast in this is amazing,full of pure talent---Bill Murray, Charles Durning, Geena Davis, TeriGarr, Jessica Lange, and a great cameo from the director SydneyPollack. It is inventive, eccentric and outstanding. If you watch thismovie...and you don't laugh, it may be time to visit your doctor.Mention Prozac, or a strong laxative.

ted00043 2012-05-10 01:43:21

"You Slut"

This IS A Great Comedy But Its Also VERY Disturbing. I Always ThoughtDustin Hoffman Was A Horrible Actor But Then I Saw This Now I BelieveHe Can Play Any Role. The Plot Is That Michael Dorsey is an unemployedactor with an impossible reputation. In order to find work and fund hisfriend's play he dresses as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, and lands thepart in a daytime drama. Dorsey loses himself in this woman role andessentially becomes Dorothy Michaels, captivating women all around thecity and inspiring them to break free from the control of men andbecome more like Dorsey's initial identity. This newfound role,however, lands Dorsey in a hot spot between a female friend/'lover,' afemale co-star he falls in love with, that co-star's father who fallsin love with him, and a male co-star who yearns for his affection. NowYou Gotta Give Credit To Bill Murray He Has The Best Lines Like "ThatIs One Nutty Hospital" When Dustin Hoffman Reveals Dorothy Michaels WasHim That Was Funny & When They Said Cut Everyone Went For Drinks As IfTo Say "Need A Drink After *That* One". All In All A Funny Movie.

disdressed12 2012-05-06 13:32:14

gender bending comedy/drama/romance

my roommate and i both enjoyed this film.it stars Dustin Hoffman,TeriGarr,Jessica Lang,Dabney Colmen, Bill Murray and Charles Durning.GeenaDavis has a small role as well..it's directed by Sydney Pollack,whoalso has a small role in the film.it's gender bending comedy.but it's adrama and a romance.all three elements work equally well here.it islaugh out loud funny at times.my only complaint is i thought the moviewas a bit too long,but other than that,it's good,solidentertainment.it's not a movie i would watch again right away,but ifyou have nothing to do on a boring night,this should keep youentertained for just under two hours.for me,Tootsie is a 6/10

2012-05-06 01:57:23

funny movie

This review is from: Tootsie (DVD) This is the funnist movie. A man cannot get a job on a soap so he dresses as a women, tries again & get hired. He even has a man want to date him as the woman

HelloTexas11 2012-05-02 15:16:11

excellent cast in hilarious comedy

'Tootsie' is, first and foremost, a marvelous updating of the oldscrewball comedies of the thirties and forties. It's almost a shame toburden it with any deeper meanings than that, as that is quitesufficient. But there are some 'messages' in it, I suppose... more onthem shortly. Dustin Hoffman plays Michael Dorsey, a pain-in-the-assactor who can't get hired anywhere because he's a pain in the ass. Sohe hits upon the idea of posing as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, to gethired for a soap opera. It works. Is Hoffman really so convincingimpersonating a woman? No, I don't think so. But he's dead-on in hisportrayal of a man pretending to be one. He's always just a little toomade up and well-dressed and perfectly-coiffed to be believable next tothe more natural (and real) women he interacts with, mainly JessicaLange and Teri Garr. But aside from a stray comment here and there,nobody seems to notice. The entire cast is wonderful; I have to singleout Teri Garr though. Her character, Sandy, is a very complicated andmoody variation on the classic ditzy blonde and Garr is perfect in therole. Her mood can change in the blink of an eye, and it does, often.At a party early on, Sandy comes bursting out of the bathroom holding aplunger and says to the first person she sees, "I've been trapped inthere for a half hour! Didn't anybody hear me?" Then she looks around,instantly cheerful again, and says, "Wow, so everyone's having a greattime, huh?" Her prepping for an audition for the soap opera part ispriceless too. To say complications arise from Michael becoming Dorothywould be an understatement. John Van Horn (an actor in the soap opera)lusts after her, and Les Nichols (Charles Durning), who is the fatherof Jessica Lange's Julie Nichols, actually proposes marriage. With aring. But it's Julie that Michael/Dorothy is interested in and ofcourse he can't do anything about it with revealing his identity andlosing the job. Jessica Lange won an Oscar; the film was nominated forten Academy Awards altogether. Not surprisingly in a story like this,the men are portrayed none-too-flatteringly, and Ron Carlisle (DabneyColeman), the soap's director, is the worst of them all- a vain, malechauvinist egomaniac. The role fits Coleman like a glove (how manytimes has he played a variation on THIS character?) and he too has hisshare of funny lines and moments. Okay, so the 'messages.' One ofcourse is that men are clueless when it comes to women and theirfeelings. Michael himself, even though he is now able to see thingsthrough a woman's eyes, doesn't necessarily understand them any better.His general reaction seems to be, what a crazy way to act, dress, andlive; after a certain point, he can't stand it any more and can't waitto go back to being a man. There are some gentle digs at women too.That some females have an undying capacity to feel victimized no matterwhat the situation has Michael/Dorothy falling back on typical malefeelings. As in, if a guy abused 'her', Dorothy would kick him in thenuts. And so on. Oh and Bill Murray is in it too, unbilled in theopening credits, as Michael's roommate, and he's quite funny,essentially playing, well, Bill Murray and offering wry commentary onthe goings-on. So, as they said in the forties, 'Tootsie' is alaff-riot, and the chuckle quotient is sky high. It's definitely rightup there with 'Ed Wood' as one of the best cross-dressing movies ever.

johno-21 2012-05-02 03:32:02

Kinda silly but it ain't no drag

Director Sydney Pollack really had a good run for about 20 years as aversatile film director during which he made such films as They ShootHorses Don't They, Jerimiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of theCondor, the electric Horsemen, Our of Africa, The Firm and of courseTootsie. If you can get past the implausibility of a man playing awoman and all the characters who know him as a man don't recognize himin his disguise than this film will work for you much the same way asin Mrs. Doubtfire years later. Then add to that premise that it is oneof the world's most well known dramatic actors, Dustin Hoffman in therole of the guy in drag which continues to stretch the plot beyondbelief. But you know what? Hoffman is so good and funny and surroundedby such a great cast that somehow it actually works. Jessica Lange,Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Bill Murray and DirectorSydney Pollack co star in this film penned by comic writers LarryGelbart and Elaine May along with Murry Schisgal, Don McGuire and BarryLevinson. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards including most of the majorsfor Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in Dustin Hoffman, two BestSupporting Actress nominations for Teri Garr and Jessica Lange in herOscar winning role and Best Screenplay in addition to Film editing,Cinematography, Music and sound. Like many films it looks and sounds alittle dated today but it's still a bright comedy and I would give itan 8.5 out of 10.

2012-04-30 07:02:26

Classic comedy

Dustin Hoffman is just amazing in this movie. I actually prefer him as the Tootsie character, Dorothy Michaels. Could someone just make a movie and cast him as Dorothy? So many funny lines and Terri Garr's best film ever, except maybe Young Frankenstein. Sydney Pollack as Dorothy/Michael's agent is also hysterical. He should act more. I've already forgiven him for "Eyes Wide Shut."

templer_doom 2012-04-30 05:44:49

The movie that made me fall in love with Jessica Lange!!! WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS

It was ages, having had a tremendous crush on Jessica Lange, who wasabsolutely gorgeous in this film, before I realized how enjoyable TOOTSIE isas a comedy on it's own. After a truthful opening credit sequence in which the trials andtribulations of acting etc (and having done acting classes similar to thoseon show in this film, I know what it is like!!), we are introduced toMichael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), an out-of-work actor whose reputation forbeing difficult denies him any glory. At an audition for a TV soap which isbeing attended by his girlfriend Sandy (Teri Garr), who is rejected beforeshe even has a chance to read, Michael learns that a regular on the show hastaken a part in THE ICEMAN COMETH on Broadway. Incensed, Michael visits hisagent (played by director Sydney Pollack in a brilliant supportingperformance) who tells him to 'get some therapy'. Cue Dorothy Michaels,Dorsey in drag, who not only gets a part in his new guise, but also falls inlove with the show director's girlfriend, Julie (Jessica Lange. May I justsay that the first time we clearly see her on screen was the moment I gainedan immediate crush on her!!. Anyway, enough about that!!)Funny, perceptive and truthful, TOOTSIE was worthy of it's box-officesuccess worldwide in 1982-83.

Rockwell_Fassbender 2012-04-29 15:56:27

An absolute joy.

If Tootsie were made today, it would be absolutely awful. Some hackactor would be yucking it up in the leading role and the entire thingwould be based around it's one-joke premise; an out of work actordresses in drag to finally land a role on a soap opera. It would havebeen two hours of jokes about a man putting on stockings, with a fewlazy subplots tossed in to fill up time. Thankfully, this one was madein 1982, before the "hilarious" idea of a man dressing as a womanbecame a tired and trite excuse to get a few cheap laughs from thepeople shameless enough to shell out money for a ticket.Tootsie is a sign of how far we've fallen, because thirty years ago afilm like this was made and was actually good. Yes, it's relativelylight entertainment, but it's entertaining and so enjoyable and filledwith good humor, life and, most of all, heart. That's where it reallyshines and what the difference comes down to here; this movie has somuch heart that it's overflowing with it. Things don't feel staged andthe jokes don't feel like they are being forced down the audience'sthroat; sure the premise is hard to buy, but once you move past itthere is so much to gain here.They set up the premise and then the rest of the film happensorganically, as opposed to one ridiculously staged and flat joke afteranother. The care that they take into establishing Michael Dorsey andDorothy Michaels as their own separate characters is mightilyimpressive. When I was watching Dorothy on screen, I felt like I waswatching a real woman, not watching Michael in drag. Part of this canbe attributed to the care and depth of the script and of SydneyPollack's direction, but of course a lot of it must be credited toDustin Hoffman's masterful performance.This is a whacky premise, but where the brilliance of it comes is howeveryone, especially Hoffman, plays it completely straight. You neverdoubt that he is fully absorbed into this character, as Michael Dorseyis as well. There's never a wink at the audience or a tongue in thecheek, and that's what makes it so enjoyable and good-hearted. Theycouldn't make one like this these days, so I'm very glad they got onedone before it was too late. A very enjoyable picture.

tedg 2012-04-28 20:08:32

Dressed

Spoilers herein.The standard for actors these days is folded acting. That's where an actoracts the part of an actor and communicates both to the audience. I have a database ofhundreds of such projects.There are two jokes this time around. The first joke is that the characteris an obsessive method actor and is played by the most obsessive method actor of the time.This is pretty sweet, turning his usually obnoxious excesses into humorous prancing.To accentuate the joke, he is surrounded by actors who can communicate withoutshowing us that they are trying. Bill Murray is so natural and Jessica Lange soreal, they bracket the self-reference.To further guide us in this layering, the director himself has a major role,and in fact most of the funniest reactions. His role outside the film is roughlyanalogous to that within the film.The second joke is the old Shakespearean bit: lovers disguised to eachother. I thought this humor was substantially less clever. The thread seems to exist only todistract from the more clever joke. Part of that distraction is Geena Davis inunderthings, one of a couple stage jokes.I like to recommend movies in pairs. Watch this. Think about theself-reference bit. Then wonder what it would be like if Jessica's character's character (NurseCharles) got confused about the levels too. Wouldn't that be the obvious next step in theself-referential humor, and from precisely the other direction? Then see `NurseBetty' and watch Rene play Jessica playing Charles play Betty and pretending notto.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Nosajes 2012-04-27 12:37:27

Laugh out loud over and over again!

One of the most laugh out loud funny movies I have ever seen. Yet with allthe hilarity, the film has a lot to say. Dustin Hoffman gives theperformance of his career. Reading about the making of this film almostgave me a heart attack! Somehow through all the travails, a true cinematicmasterpiece was produced! From the rapid fire editing, incrediblescreenplay, and sharp direction to one of the greatest ensemble casts everassembled, this film is gold mine of entertainment and cinemalanguage.

2012-04-27 04:25:29

Best Actress Performance From A Dude

This is one of the best and funniest comedies of all time.I've read the original script and it's brilliant. The only difference in the film is Bill Murray's character: in the script he's described as the stereotypical New York playwright with a pipe and a tweed jacket with elbow pads, but his lines are the same. Bill Murray gives the role some of the film's biggest laughs, but it's also fun to picture a droll, academic-looking guy saying his lines.The casting is wonderful. It was good to see Jessica Lange win the Best Supporting Oscar but DUSTIN HOFFMAN SHOULD HAVE WON FOR THIS MOVIE! No, I wouldn't take away his other Oscars--but TOOTSIE is the role where you see a master at work. There are times I watch this movie simply to watch his expressions. It's a part that works on numerous levels and Hoffman is funny on every one of them.Director Sydney Pollack not only flawlessly keeps the timing of the humor going, but he also contributes an authentic performance as Michael Dorsey--er, Dorothy Michael's agent.My only disappointment was that the DVD does not have a bunch of extras about the film. Director's commentary, actor's commentary, even the writer's commentary--all would be fascinating, I'm sure. (One last note: I'm originally from Ohio and, for 20 years, I've had to convince some friends and family to watch this film because they didn't want to watch a "gay movie." Any movie where a guy dresses up like a girl has to be a gay movie. Don't believe it. TOOTSIE is a smart, intelligent film about the roles and characteristics of men and women--and how many comedies can you say that about?)

2012-04-26 02:53:36

Unemployed New York actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman)

Unemployed New York actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) goes throughharsh measures in order to establish a name for him self. His arrogantattitude and stubborn temper irritated every producer in the cityleaving him job-less. Michael's room mate, Jeff (Bill Murray) plays awitty, positive character that has an offer to make. If Michael cancome up with eight thousand dollars in order to fund his production,Michael can play the lead role. In bringing an acting friend/loveinterest, Sandy (Teri Garr), to an audition Michael is overcome with anidea that would change his acting career in the most positive way. Noproducer would higher the arrogant Michael Dorsey, but Dorothy Michaelswho is a strong-hearted, threatening woman would be sure to get the jobas Emily Kimberly in "Southwest General" a day time drama series. Thiscomedy would not be complete without a silly love twist involving a"Southwest General" nurse (Jessica Lange), her father (Charles Durning)and another co-worker (George Gaynes). The complications of having twoidentities provoke hilarious encounters with both of the sexesinterested in Michael-Dorothy. You may not be a fan of the cheesy musicand some of the corny humor, but seeing Dustin Hoffman dressed up as awoman and actually caring about how a dress hugs her hips could put asmile on anyone's face. The dialogue adds to this humor with sharp,quick wit often referring to the stereo types portrayed in both men andwomen. I would suggest Sydney Pollack's "Tootsie" to people of all ageslooking for a light-hearted comedy.

2012-04-25 18:02:56

What can I say about "Tootsie"?

Most every decent film critic, when listing their top 50 (or however many) comedy films of all time, will place "Tootsie" near the top.The script is an absolute delight, and the acting is the best. [How unfortunate] that Dustin Hoffman did not receive the best actor Oscar for this performance...he deserved it. His portrayal of Dorothy Michaels is astounding....he truly makes this somewhat dumpy middle-aged woman into a real, live, breathing, wonderful, joy to behold. Do NOT miss this film.

jamdonahoo 2012-04-25 02:05:21

this film is not a drag

Tootsie is a classic. Hoffman, Murray, Coleman, Garr and company createa laugh out loud movie. There are many great lines in the film and SidPollack's scene with Dorothy in the old Russian Tea Room is priceless.The Russian Tea Room was on 57th street and Dustin changed for thescene in a nearby apartment. When he was coming down on the elevator henoticed Jose Ferrer on the elevator. To test his costume and makeup heasked Ferrer' " I heard you were not circumcised, Mr Ferrer, is thattrue?" Ferrer did not recognize Hoffman and thought he was trapped byan unbalanced woman . He was getting panicked when Hoffman identifiedhimself and they both had a good laugh

Kelly Kessler 2012-04-24 16:31:26

Touching romantic comedy with a twist.

Dennis Schwartz 2012-04-21 18:57:14

I found this polished sitcom comedy to be a drag.

2012-04-20 23:49:15

"...and it's telling me it might be you"

The first time I watched Tootsie was when I was 12 years old, heard this Stephen Bishop song on the TV, and surprised to see an oldmaid clutching a baby and looking admiringly at the baby's mom. The song seems out of place.... [After I finished that second half of the movie, I rewound the Betamax tape--my brother had already watched it full--and re-play the whole thing just for me.] But later, how Dustin Hoffman made me believe he was a legitimate old lady in heavy makeup, in love with Jessica Lange but cant express it, was amazing. This is one of the first movie that demonstrated great acting to me. Even Sydney Pollack's (the director himself) banters with Michael Dorsey and Dorothy Michaels are remarkably funny, something that many other movies has imitated afterwards. It's a comedy, yes, but it also touched on unemployment, single parenthood, struggling for art and principle, how tv soaps are made,... what more can you ask more of a movie? Strong script, great actors, fantastic direction, good song...The I Might Be You song has since become one of the quintessential wedding songs ever, but everytime Im hearing it in FM, it always reminds me of a man who cant express his love because he's disguised in drag out of necessity. What a combination, but it worked. This DVD has no interesting special features whatsoever. But I dont need any thing more to give it 5 stars.