Tootsie (DVD)

Some actors are such perfectionist that others find them impossible to work with. Michael Dorsey is actor with this reputation. For four months he hasn't worked. No one wants to hire him because he is difficult to work with and also on the wrong side of the age ladder. One day his friend Sandy Lester talks to him about a female role in a hospital based drama. Ever the perfectionist Michael puts women's clothes on, a wig and a voice. The studio hires him to play the role in hospital. His headache starts when he learns that the role is permanent. He has to juggle life as Dorothy Michaels as well as Michael Dorsey. Tootsie is a classic ...  Read the complete review

Tootsie was released in 1982 and was a critical and commercial success. It's one of those one-line movies that Hollywood loves so much -- an unemployed actor can't find a job until he dresses up as a woman and becomes a huge success. This was Dustin Hoffman's first movie after winning an Oscar in Kramer Vs Kramer and he was having a hard time playing down his reputation as an actor overly concerned with his craft. There is a legendary quote from Laurence Olivier upon observing Hoffman's mental immersion in his role in Marathon Man. "Why doesn't he just act?" Tootsie proved that Dustin Hoffman was too canny to be knocked by ...  Read the complete review

Bad actors, alcoholism, transvestitism... Still, enough about the wrap party for the last series of ‘Take The High Road’, this op’s all about ‘Tootsie’, one of the most memorable films of the 1980’s. Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is an actor, who spends his days and night scraping a living being an acting coach and waiter, awaiting his big break. However, because of his abrasiveness and generally explosive self-opinions in auditions, the moment when he gets to see his name up in lights seems ever further away. After one of his tutees, Sandy (Teri Garr) fails an audition for a part in a soap, and his agent (Sydney ...  Read the complete review

As I was only 8 years old when this film was released, I did not see it until some years later, 1990 to be exact, but since then it has remained a firm favourite of mine, and of my family ever since. It is a perfect Sunday afternoon film, in front of the television, snacks in front of you, being entertained, it does not get much better than that! Dustin Hoffman stars as Michael Dorsey, a struggling actor with a reputation for being awkward, whose biggest job to date has been a voice over for a vegetable commercial, and his agent George Fields, played by Sidney Pollack does not seem to have much faith in him either. He makes money by teaching, and in his latest ...  Read the complete review

There is an old joke about modern actors. "What do you do?" "I'm an actor." "Oh, which restaurtant?" Anyone who has had anything to do with professional acting will tell you just how difficult it is, if you don't happen to be Catherine Zeta Jones, to find work out there. They will also tell you that they have spent more of their time waiting tables than they have spent being Willy Loman or King Lear, and the lengths to which they would go to, in order to get that part they need. I have just set the stage for the 1982 classic, "Tootsie." Onto this stage comes Dustin Hoffman ...  Read the complete review