December 11, 2010: Tootsie
I had been talking recently with my wife about revisiting two opposite-gender impersonation films from roughly the same era, Tootsie and Victor Victoria. It turns out they were released in the same year (1982) and we started the comparison on this evening with Tootsie. I’ve always been a fan but hadn’t seen it in a while, so I was looking forward to seeing it again, and I was not disappointed.
Tootsie stars Dustin Hoffman as a struggling actor who dresses up as a woman in order to land a soap opera part, throwing his life into complete chaos as he has to juggle the different stories he has told to his best friend, his agent, his girlfriend, his new love interest, and his new love interest’s father who has taken a liking to him as a woman. A number of ideas are explored, including integrity, chauvinism, homophobia, and love.
I think Tootsie is often thought of as a lightweight comedy, what with the likes of Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Teri Garr, and Dabney Coleman in supporting roles along with director Sydney Pollack hamming it up as Hoffman’s agent. However, it actually is fairly weighty and progressive for its time, even as it takes a deftly lighthanded approach to the telling of its story. It nearly gets to slapstick a couple of times with silly misunderstandings, but that angle is not played up like it was in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Pollack is not afraid to acknowledge the obvious comic aspects of a man dressing up as a woman and hiding it from most of the people in his life, but at the same time he doesn’t disrespect the subject matter, as Hoffman begins to notice the discrimination faced by women in the world, from the dismissive treatment by men to the sometimes torturous process of selecting clothes and getting dressed. The quality of the filmmaking and the earnest intent of the story did not go unnoticed at Oscar time, with Jessica Lange winning the Supporting Actress award and the film being nominated for a bunch of other big awards, including Dustin Hoffman with his fifth Best Actor nomination (he had won once before for 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer) and Sydney Pollack for directing and producing (he would go on to victory in 1985 for Out of Africa). Tootsie is one of the standout films from 1982, and incidentally looks great in widescreen, having been butchered in pan-and-scan showings on TV for decades.
One unfortunate point which keeps sticking with me is how the ending doesn’t really come around full circle and reflect the lessons of the film. Hoffman is misleading all the staff at the TV show as well as his girlfriend, ostensibly just to make enough money to be able to mount his friend’s play so that he and his girlfriend can act in it. His alter ego, as “she” stands up against chauvinism at the workplace and boldly ad-libs her dialogue in the show to be more feminist and progressive, is ironically held up as a shining example of integrity even as “her” entire existence is a lie. Of course there’s the scene with the big reveal during a live broadcast and after that all hell breaks loose including Hoffman losing his new love interest (played by Lange). He tries to get her back and she refuses, but in the end she relents, and their reunion doesn’t quite ring true because earlier he hurt her and completely violated her trust. On the other hand, though, I suppose I should acknowledge that it isn’t necessary to hold such permanent grudges against people, so maybe I personally grew just a little bit in my contemplation of what this ending meant.
Tootsie is an undeniable modern classic, and much more than just a silly cross-dressing comedy. Its stars include well-established thespians as well as a number of folks who were just getting their feet wet in cinema, and it all comes together nicely under the direction of the late Sydney Pollack. It was great to revisit this one.
Socially conscious comedy and drama together.
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