Friday, January 05, 2007

Movie review - "Tootsie" (1982) ****

Didn't especially love this when I saw it as a young un, probably because my taste was more along the lines of Flying High, but isn't it a wonderful film that has aged brilliantly? Dustin Hoffman is perfect as the obnoxious actor who dresses as a woman to get work and (brilliant, brilliant concept) becomes a feminist because he doesn't want to kiss men. OK, maybe there's something a bit wrong with a man showing women how to react, but it totally works in this scene.
So many wonderful moments: Terri Garr locking herself in a bathroom and no one noticing (actually every second of her performance is cherishable), Jessica Lange's sweetness, Bill Murray's pretentious playwright (who only wants an audience of 40 people trying to get out of the rain), Dabney Coleman's incompetent director, wonderful George Gizzard as the lecherous soap star (every pore of him oozing of years in front of the camera), Sydney Pollack as the agent.
The film is a little harsh on soapie writers, and a bit too pro actors re-writing stuff in the moment: plotting soaps are very hard (as Pollack should have known, having gone through so many writers on this film).

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