Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
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.
Tootsie is a sharp, smartly constructed comedy with a genuinely clever premise that it executes with real wit and social insight. Dustin Hoffman delivers one of his most celebrated performances, utterly convincing as both Dorsey and Dorothy, and the supporting cast (Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Bill Murray) is exceptional. The plot is tightly engineered with escalating comic complications that also carry genuine emotional and feminist weight — a rare comedy that earns both laughs and substance. Cinematography is competent and professional for a New York-set studio comedy but unremarkable. Novelty is real — the film's blend of farce, character study, and social commentary is distinctively executed — but the cross-dressing comic premise was not unprecedented. The ending resolves neatly but the wrap-up speech from Dorsey is slightly too tidy and self-congratulatory, undercutting some of the earned ambiguity.