In the early 80s, someone somewhere came up with the idea to write a romantic comedy with the lead and supporting male actors being Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Charles Durning, and Dabney Coleman. And as the female lead actors, they rounded up Terry Garr, Geena Davis, Jessica Lange, and...Dustin Hoffman?!
If I had been in that 80's writer's room, I would have yelled at the top of my lungs, "Where's the beefcake?!" And the only halfway believable answer would have been "Dabney Coleman's mustache, of course."
Fortunately, that insane casting decision to not have a single hunky man in the movie ended up giving us a fantastic movie. It is, without a doubt, in the top ten best comedies of all time. Right up there with "Groundhog Day," another comedy gem starring Bill Murray. So there was lots going on in the movie to make it a top-notch comedy--including the fact that Dustin Hoffman turned out to be more attractive in drag than in real man clothes, at least to Charles Durning. (Suddenly I'm wondering what a Charles Durning-Dustin Hoffman child would look like. It isn't pretty.) But what about the movie made it a ROMANTIC comedy? Two things--Jessica Lange's incredible looks and the theme song for the movie, "It Might Be You."
Yes, I readily admit that Jessica Lange did not age gracefully. That's probably one reason they cast her on American Horror Story, for which she won a truckload of awards.
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| This is what you end up looking like when you get hit by a truckload of awards. |
But back in the 80s, the Jessica Lange's role in "Tootsie"--for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress--was the incredibly beautiful and vulnerable-turned-powerful nurse Julie Nichols, the "hospital slut" (her words in the movie, not mine).
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| Jessica is the one on the left. |
Every single time I saw the movie, which was a LOT (Downey theater made a lot of money off me from buying peanut M&Ms and cherry nibs--the best movie candy combo ever), I fell deeper and deeper in love with Jessica Lange. Now, I don't know the full psychological impact of my movie-star crush on Jessica, but I did end up marrying a sexy nurse named Julie.
The other thing that gave the movie a romantic feel was the theme song. I couldn't find any videos that combined the theme song with clips of the movie that didn't have a strange Russian logo on them, so prepare to see a hammer and sickle along with all the other stuff. It may be part of the Russian interference in the upcoming election, but I don't think it's going to sway any voters. The old Tootsie voting demographic just ain't what it used to be.
This is the kind of 80s love song that is tailor made for those times when you realize that the person you're feeling an attraction toward just MIGHT be the one for you for all of your life (like Jessica Lange). But by the definition of "might," it can also be that moment just before you realize that person might NOT be the one for you (like Dustin Hoffman). When I listen to it, it reminds me of those moments just before you go for it and try to make the relationship happen--that moment of elation when you know you're falling in love and nothing bad has happened yet, like having that person reveal on live TV that they're not the gender you thought they were. Or worse, that the person hogged all the peanut M&Ms and cherry nibs at the movie.
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