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hnfeabPenpusher
After being suspended from his team, a hockey player disguises himself as a woman and takes the figure skating world by storm, as a Tonya Harding-esque, tough-as-nails new female skater, and in the process, learns how to be a better man.
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Plus in response to dpg and mike: I don’t see why he “Has” to switch to figure skating. If your lead is going pretend to be a woman, why not as a woman hokey player? After all, that is what your lead is trained in.
In a comedy, there are always a few liberties you can take with the truth but, as dpg has pointed out, I think the amount of things to be addressed would be too much for an audience.
Why does he do this in the first place? Why does he have to disguise himself as a woman? What’s he trying to prove? In “Tootsie”, Dustin Hoffman’s character can’t get hired as a male actor because of his ego, so the only way for him to work (and he’s trying to prove a point – that he’s a great actor and can play any role) is to dress up as a woman. Similarly in Mrs Doubtfire. Robin Williams’ character must dress as a woman to be able to see his children. With both, there’s a desire that fuels the switch. Here…. I can’t see any reason why he HAS to dress as a woman. Immediately, the premise fails.
>>>and in the process, learns how to be a better man.
The premise is also a knock off of “Tootsie”, including the lesson learned, the subjective character arc.? (A logline is about the struggle toward an objective goal, not the lesson learned.)
I don’t find the premise particularly credible.? First of all being able to play hockey well doesn’t automatically mean he can figures skate well.? Two widely divergent sets of skills are involved.? ?It’s like saying some one who has mastered the violin is automatically qualified to play the cello or get up to speed quickly because, hey, both are string instruments; they look alike; the on difference is the size of the instrument.
Also It takes years of training to become an Olympic caliber athlete.? And they have to start young.? He’s already a young adult (at least).
And it’s SOP for Olympic athletes to be tested? regularly for taking performance enhancing substances — doping.? Like testosterone.? What would pass as a normal level of testosterone in men, would? be considered too high for women. So he would be outed after he is first blood test.
Winning athletes must also submit to a blood test immediately after a winning performance — again to see if they’ve been doping.
(It’s also SOP to require a physical exam.? ?So there’s that.)
I realize that the reality can be a little more elastic in comedies, but a story line must be credible in light of contemporary events and conditions. The premise of “Tootsie” was credible because its known and accepted that male actors can and do perform in drag.? And Dustin Hoffman’s character never had to undergo blood tests and physical exams.
imho
When you have a hockey player turned figure skater, you are going to immediately be compared to “The Cutting Edge” however with a small change you could make this more topical, Here are two slightly different examples:
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“After he’s cut from the team on the verge of nationals, a womanizing hockey player pretends to be transgender in order to join the women’s Olympic team, to win the title that has eluded him.”
“After he’s cut from the team on the verge of nationals, a womanizing hockey player pretends to be transgender in order to join the women’s Olympic team, to win the title but soon discovers being a woman is harder than it seems.”