TOOTSIE (1982)

Director: Sydney Pollack
Writers: Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr
Runtime: 116 minutes

Plot: An unemployed actor with a reputation for being difficult disguises himself as a woman to get a role in a soap opera.
Review: Hoffman stars as Michael Dorsey, a character maybe not unlike Hoffman himself in his younger days. Michael is a New York actor, bright, aggressive, talented - and unemployable. Michael has a bad reputation for taking stands, throwing tantrums, and interpreting roles differently than the director. He goes with a friend (Teri Garr) to an audition for a soap opera. The character is a middle-aged woman working as hospital administrator. When his friend doesn't get the job, Michael goes home, thinks, decides dresses up in drag and goes to an audition himself. And, improvising brilliantly, he gets the role.
Dustin Hoffman is actually fairly plausible as "Dorothy," the actress. If his voice isn't quite right, a Southern accent allows it to squeak by. The wig and the glasses are a little too much, but in an uncanny way the woman played by Hoffman looks like certain actual drag queens.
Michael Dorsey finds to his interest and amusement that Dorothy begins to take on a life of her own. She's a liberated eccentric, a woman who seems sort of odd and funny at first, but grows on you and wins your admiration by standing up for what's right. One of the things that bothers Dorothy is the way the soap opera's sexist director (Dabney Coleman) mistreats the attractive young actress (Jessica Lange) who plays Julie, a nurse on the show. Dorothy and Julie become friends. Dorothy's problem, however, is that the man inside her is gradually growing uncontrollably in love with Julie. There are other complications. Julie's father (Charles Durning), a gruff, friendly, no-nonsense sort, lonely but sweet, falls in love with Dorothy.
The movie manages to make some lighthearted but well-aimed observations about sexism. It also pokes satirical fun at soap operas, New York show business agents and the Manhattan social pecking order. And it turns out to be a touching love story, after all - so touching that you may be surprised how moved you are at the conclusion of this comedy.

Reviewed By S.M. Intisab Shahriyar