His dream is to raise enough money to fund his roommate Jeff's (Bill Murray) play and without work, this is pretty much impossible. Meanwhile, his close friend, Sandy (Teri Garr) has just tried out for a part on a popular soap opera and was turned away flat. In sheer frustration and to prove a point, Michael dresses up like a woman, calls himself Dorothy Michaels and winds up getting the part! Not only does he get the part, but he becomes immensely popular, stealing the hearts of several men along the way, including the father of his crush on the show, Julie (Jessica Lange). Not wanting to hurt Sandy's feelings because a man dressed as a woman got the job over her, he keeps his second life a secret from all except Jeff and his agent, George (Sydney Pollack, who also directed). As they grow closer as friends, Dorothy/Michael finds himself falling in love with Julie and she finds herself having unexplainable feelings towards Dorothy, feelings that she can't give in to. Especially since her father, Les (Charles Durning), is in love with Dorothy and has bought "her" an engagement ring.
Everything comes to an explosive head when Michael, having been rejected by Julie as Dorothy, decides to unveil his true self when the show is forced to do an episode live due to some technical difficulty with the previously shot film. During a party to congratulate Dorothy's character on her position at the hospital, Michael concocts his own script about being the brother of the person they all think he is and in one shocking and swift move, pulls off his wig, much to the shock of everyone on set, but mostly the lecherous director, Ron (Dabney Coleman) who is also Julie's cheating boyfriend, and Julie herself, who ends up punching Michael out of anger.
While there are plenty of silly moments like when Sandy comes to visit Michael and there are numerous girly items hanging around, or when Michael reveals himself to George, I never really found myself laughing hard. The scenes did more to generate snickers than anything else. Personally, I didn't find Dustin Hoffman believable as a woman. He was fairly ugly and his voice just sounded wrong. I find it hard to believe that people would embrace "Dorothy" on a popular soap opera. But the concept is silly and funny and obviously the movie has big fans out there. I just don't happen to count myself as one of them.
While I didn't love the movie, this 25th Anniversary Edition is chock full of goodies for the Tootsie fan. There are several long featurettes on the making-of, along with a nice retrospective with pretty much all the major players from the cast except for Bill Murray and Geena Davis, whose first film appearance was in this movie. Dabney Coleman looked pretty scary (mainly because he hadn't shaved and looked scraggily), but the rest of the crew has aged well. I do wish they had listed their names because there were a couple of people I didn't immediately recognize and I assume they were writers for the movie. Also included are a slew of deleted scenes which I really, really enjoyed. I think some of them could have been left in, but I was pleased with the opportunity to see them after the fact. Finally, you get to see Dustin Hoffman's creepy screen and wardrobe test. A blast from the past, I tell ya.
This DVD is like a Tootsie time capsule and is a must-have for big fans of the movie. Just seeing some of the things that happened on set and getting a glimpse into what went into the making of this movie way back when is lots of fun.
