Sydney Pollack: The '80s

Absence of Malice

Tootsie (February 8/08)

Tootsie casts Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor who decides to reinvent himself as a woman after his temperamental sensibilities get him blacklisted within the industry. Michael - in the guise of alter ego Dorothy Michaels - subsequently lands a gig on a hospital-themed soap opera, and the movie primarily follows his efforts to blend in with the cast and crew. Though perhaps a little on the long side - something one has come to expect from a Sydney Pollack film, admittedly - Tootsie is an amiable and frequently hilarious comedy that boasts one of the most effective performances of Hoffman's career. That he's been surrounded by a near flawless supporting cast certainly doesn't hurt, yet - despite the presence of such folks as Bill Murray, Dabney Coleman, and Jessica Lange - it's Pollack himself who turns in the film's most memorable periphery performance (it's interesting to note that the director initially didn't even want to play Michael's exasperated agent). It does eventually become clear, however, that Tootsie fares best in its relatively frenetic opening half hour, as the movie slowly-but-surely adopts a more conventional feel as it progresses - particularly as Michael attempts to forge some kind of a relationship with Lange's sweet but guarded Julie. The film recovers superbly for a brilliantly-conceived finale that effectively sidesteps the expectedly melodramatic fallout from Michael's scheme, and it's ultimately not terribly difficult to see why Tootsie is now ranked among cinema's most indelible comedies.

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Out of Africa