Tootsie

In Sydney Pollack's long career, the only flat-out comedy he made was Tootsie, and it's kind of remarkable that a man who confessed to not being a comedy director ended up making one of the most beloved American comedies of all time. The AFI list of top comedies had Tootsie at number two, behind Some Like It Hot. I wouldn't put it that high, but it's a terrific film, and gets my vote for Pollack's best work.

The story, of course, involves Dustin Hoffman as an out-of-work actor who is unemployable because of his reputation for being difficult. He decides to impersonate a woman and manages to get a job on a soap opera, and in the process falls in love with the leading lady, Jessica Lange. There are all sorts of complications that ensue, from Hoffman being forced to seduce his friend, Teri Garr (to cover for being in his underwear, when he really wanted to try on one of her dresses) to Lange's father, Charles Durning, proposing marriage to Hoffman's female identity.

The thread through the film is that Hoffman learns to become a better man by pretending to be a woman. It was this spine that Pollack needed in order to sign on to do the film (the DVD includes a fascinating documentary on the making of the film). That bit of pop psychology is necessary to make the film more than just a simple bedroom farce, but it's really the least interesting thing about the film. What compels me to like it is the impeccable timing and construction of the dialogue, which had many fathers (and a mother)--Murray Schisgal and Larry Gelbart are the credited writers, but according to the documentary, Elaine May contributed key things to the script (such as the creation of the characters played by Bill Murray and Teri Garr). Murray, as I suspected, improvised most of his lines, including a great bit where he says that he wants to write plays that are attended only by 90 people who have just come in out of a rainstorm, and then has the perfect capper to the reveal scene, in which Hoffman lets the entire world know of his duplicity. "That is one nutty hospital," Murray says, in his signature deadpan.

There are many great moments in this film, such as how Durning's face visibly clouds into anger at a bar when he runs into the man who was pretending to be the woman he proposed to, or the priceless scene in which Hoffman argues with his agent, played by Pollack, about his choices when he was asked to play a tomato. Pollack was talked into playing the part by Hoffman, for reasons that fit right into the scene itself (Hoffman was parodying himself, as he admits to being a notoriously difficult actor). Pollack hadn't acted in twenty years, but finally agreed, and went on to have a great second career as a character actor, especially in films like Husbands and Wives, Changing Lanes, Eyes Wide Shut, and Michael Clayton.

The only problem I had with the film is the concession to the usual Hollywood drivel quotient with the inclusion of an extremely sappy song by Stephen Bishop, which accompanies a banal montage. It reminds me of the scene in Animal House when John Belushi smashes Bishop's guitar. If only Belushi could have been called upon to do that in this film.