Director Pollack and writer Gelbart take a comic idea at least as old as Elizabethan times — switching gender as a disguise and the issues arising from it — and give it an inspired and believable contemporary spin. The film grabs you with its conceit and creates a laugh riot most of the time. Corpulent character actor Durning is note-perfect as Julie's amorous father, while Murray, underplaying brilliantly, almost steals the movie as Jeff, a wry, mellow witness to an honest-to-goodness gender bender. This "Tootsie" won't cry: it sings!