The notion of men wearing women's clothes has been a part of comedy for decades. Sometimes it works wonderfully (Some Like it Hot), other times it doesn't (White Chicks), but no matter the results it is a virtually certainty that the genre will continue. Tootsie, one of the best films to utilize this trope, is getting a DVD release in "25th Anniversary" format.
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Teri Garr, and Jessica Lange (among others), the Sydney Pollack film doesn't only go for the cheap laugh, it attempts to garner a deeper understanding of gender relations. It is a comedy that is at turns serious and funny, and almost always successful at both.
In the film, Hoffman is Michael Dorsey, a down-and-out actor who can't seem to land a role. Anytime he does actually succeed in getting a part he ruins it by arguing about his character with the director. After his agent informs him that no one in either New York or Los Angeles wants to work with him, he comes up with a plan — he'll pretend to be a woman and go after parts that way. His alter ego, Dorothy Michaels, quickly succeeds in landing a role on a soap. There he falls for a co-star, Julie Nichols (Lange), but not only does Lange think that Michael is actually Dorothy, Michael has recently entered into a romantic relationship with a long-time friend, Sandy Lester (Garr), who was actually up for the role on the soap he got.
Trying to balance two women and two very separate lives gets more complicated than Michael can handle, but that doesn't stop him from trying to hold it all together. Matters only get worse for Michael when Julie's father, Les (Charles Durning), becomes enamored with Dorothy, and the lead actor on the soap, John Van Horn (George Gaynes), insists on having a kiss scene with all his female costars.
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