The Incredible Shrinking Woman

Veteran comedic actress Lily Tomlin really gets to show off her chops here by playing no less than three roles. The principal role is that of Pat Kramer, a suburban wife & mom who mysteriously starts shrinking one day due to overexposure to an abundance of chemicals. In short order, she becomes the talk of the town, even going on the Mike Douglas show. She also comes to be exploited by evil scientists who are bent on world domination. Charles Grodin is cast as the harried husband struggling to accept his wifes' diminishing size as a fact of life; Ned Beatty is Grodins' sleazy boss.

Partly a spoof of the classic Richard Matheson story "The Incredible Shrinking Man", this wacky 1980s fantasy functions mainly as a satire of rampant consumerism. As such, it's far from being subtle, and is a little hard to stick with at first due to it being so chaotic. But Tomlin, never more appealing, is the glue to hold it all together. She's terrific; her other roles are neighborhood busybody Judith Beasley and her classic telephone operator character. Grodin is in fine form, and Beatty is a hoot. The villains are played by the likes of Henry Gibson, Elizabeth Wilson, and John Glover, and they're all good. Shelby Balik and Justin Dana are cute as Pats' kids. But the man who deserves a special shout-out is makeup effects ace and multiple Oscar winner Rick Baker, who hilariously, endearingly plays a gorilla named Sidney.

Written by Jane Wagner, and directed by Joel Schumacher (his feature filmmaking debut), this was admittedly never quite as funny as this viewer would have liked, but it was still hard to dislike. It does work towards a priceless, farcical finale. The special effects are quite amusing throughout, and those color schemes in Pats' house are offbeat, to put it one way.

Reasonably entertaining, overall.

Six out of 10.

This is one of Lily Tomlin's best movies. It's kind of corny, but it's supposed to be. Did anyone notice the bright colors, that satire the 70's, like the lime green? It's charming and amusing, and as a kid, I guess when Pat disappeared it was a little scary, but I knew she would be OK, because she was the star of the movie. It was not that scary, I've seen a lot worse. Most of all, it's very entertaining, and not the least bit tedious if you have a sense of humor and a good imagination. When you watch a movie like this, you have to suspend your disbelief and let your inner child out. This is one of my favorite comedies. Lily is great!

Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) lives in the suburbs of Tasty Meadows, California. She's a suburban housewife with two bratty kids. Her husband Vance (Charles Grodin) is an advertising executive and Dan Beame (Ned Beatty) is his boss. Her maid is Concepcion. Her neighbor Judith Beasley (Lily Tomlin) is a cosmetics saleslady. She faces a barrage of chemicals and consumer products including an experimental glue from her husband's work. Her doctor discovers that she is slowly shrinking. A dark mysterious organization wants her blood for a shrinking serum to shrink masses of people.

This is a satire and a dark comedy. Problem is that it annoyed me much more than it humored me. The kids are annoying. Every character is annoying in some ways. The in-your-face style is annoying. The production is annoying. That puke pink is annoying. The only appealing aspect is the split screen, the enlarged sets, and the forced perspective. The simple visual of a tiny Lily Tomlin in the everyday world is fun. It pushes a dark worthwhile narrative on modern consumerism. It would work better if the first part is more real and less in-your-face. The movie can build to the surreal later on as she shrinks and they throw in a gorilla. The start is too off-putting and it gets too silly.

Not-so-funny satire of American compulsive consumerism society, based partially on Jack Arnold classic 1957. movie, with several scenes knowingly re-acted completely close to original.

Instead of Grant Williams, here we have Lily Tomlin as everyday housewife slaving for her family and shrinking away, to the delight of media hungry for sensations. Besides being more or less ignored by her family, used that Tomlin simply have to take care of them, she has other serious threats that don't involve cats and spiders but something far more dangerous - humans. Along with quite inane plot, everything is exaggerated: this is not a kind, loving family but a bunch of spoiled brats throwing tantrums, husband and his colleagues are more concerned with profit, Mexican maid is non stop dancing and even neighbors are more concerned about giving interviews than actually giving Tomlin support. Any normal person would pack her bags long ago and run away, but Tomlin - being good wife and self-sacrificing mother - totters on, even as her steps became smaller and smaller. It sounded as a good idea on the paper but is not really funny, perhaps because main character is simply not likable enough - Tomlin is great comedian when given chance to be wicked but as a perpetually serving housewife she is simply annoying (only once, she appears as rude telephone operator "Ernestine" and that minute lightens up the screen). Perhaps great fun for teenagers who delight in obvious jokes but not particularly involving as movie experience and sadly, very far from thrill of 1957. original.

It has been decades since I've seen The Incredible Shrinking Woman but I have the fondest memories of the movie. It was so fascinating to me to see Lily Tomlin shrinking day by day while still trying to be a mother and a wife. It was both funny and sad to me as a kid.