Synopsis
When struggling, out of work actor Michael Dorsey secretly adopts a female alter ego - Dorothy Michaels - in order to land a part in a daytime drama, he unwittingly becomes a feminist icon and ends up in a romantic pickle.
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Cast
- Dustin HoffmanMichael Dorsey / Dorothy Michaels
- Jessica LangeJulie Nichols
- Teri GarrSandy
- Dabney ColemanRon Carlisle
- Charles DurningLes Nichols
- Bill MurrayJeff Slater
- Sydney PollackGeorge Fields
- George GaynesJohn Van Horn
- Geena DavisApril
- Doris BelackRita
Recommendations
- 100
Boston Globe
Tootsie, the story of a man who liberates himself by masquerading as a woman, is the funniest, most revealing comedy since "Annie Hall." [17 Dec 1982] - 100
Chicago Sun-Times
This movie gets you coming and going. - 100
Time
This year's miracle is called Tootsie. It is not just the best comedy of the year; it is popular art on the way to becoming cultural artifact. - 100
Variety
Remarkably funny and entirely convincing, film pulls off the rare accomplishment of being an in-drag comedy which also emerges with three-dimensional characters. - 100
The New York Times
Tootsie is the best thing that's yet happened at this year end. It's a toot, a lark, a month in the country. - 100
Slant Magazine
The film, as a whole, isn’t quite up to the phenomenal dexterity of its lead’s exertions. But there’s a legitimate reason people love this movie so much: Pollack syphoned Hoffman’s ecstatic electricity off into a popular and old-fashioned romantic-comedy formula, bringing it back to life. Tootsie is a remarkably gentle and human pop movie that informs the term “escapism” with an almost cleansing sense of decency. - 80
Empire
As hilarious as it is touching and tasteful at the same time, Tootsie will offend no one and uplift anyone who watches it. - 80
Time Out
The tone is quick-witted and appealing, with some of the smartest dialogue this side of Billy Wilder, and a wonderfully sure-footed performance from Jessica Lange (as her/his girlfriend). But the film never comes within a thousand miles of confronting its own implications: Hoffman's female impersonation is strictly on the level of Dame Edna Everage, and the script's assumption that 'she' would wow female audiences is at best ridiculous, at worst crassly insulting to women.
