The Incredible Shrinking Woman

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.

A good idea that doesn't work: a sassy, sweetly-zonked wife and mother discovers to her surprise that all the household and sundry chemicals her advertising-executive husband brings home are making her shrink. Actually, this gloppy-looking comedy does manage to get off on the right foot, with playful and funny glimpses into Tomlin's home-life, but once she shrinks and crosses paths with ready-set villains (not to mention talk show host Mike Douglas...who sings!!), the movie frays and falls apart. It's badly photographed (one of the worst-looking movies of the 1980s--what were they thinking when they watched the dailies?) and allows star Tomlin too much room to stretch her comedic chops (playing kooky characters incognito, Lily is much friendlier and funnier just playing a quirky modern woman). A disappointment for Tomlin's fans, especially since the biggest laugh in the picture is delivered by a gorilla flipping the bird. ** from ****

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.

Granted, when I last watched this movie, I was probably no more than 10 years old, but it has stuck with me and I would love to see it again! Though others may think the graphics and effects were lame, I look at it this way: it was the 80's...all movies that have effects and such look lame now that we've gone digital and become more technologically advanced. To me, the premise and the antics are what carries this movie in a way that it's a must have in any comedy fan's video library. The physical comedy that stems from Lily Tomlin's vertically challenging situation is pure fun. C'mon, how could the antics from shrinking at a rapid pace NOT be funny?!?!? Now, just have to find it so my daughters can share in the experience...

12 and under cinema.

I saw this in the theater when I was 11, liked it, and filed the memory of it under "good movie" in my mental cache. All of it's socio-political subtext --endless stabs at Madison Avenue, mass marketing and gross consumerism: Pat is a pimped-out product whore in the merciless clutches of her scAmway-pushing neighbor, and it eventually begins eating away at her, quite literally-- these bits of 'wink-wink' adult humor sailed right over my Bazooka gum-chomping, 11 year-old head.

The fun in "Incredible Shrinking Woman" was the ignorance to the script's so-called message. What tickled us kiddies in the audience was the sight of a pocket-sized Lily Tomlin sporting plastic Barbie sneakers, bedding down at night on a cot in the Barbie Dream House, and cruising down the hallway carpet in an out-of-control Barbie Dream Car. And when the 10-inch version of Pat attempts to perform her daily chores, such as washing the dishes...hee hee... fun stuff if you're a kid.

This flick resurfaced on cable recently, I was reminded that most of what we liked as 11 year olds is pretty cringe-worthy to us as adults. But I went ahead and watched it anyway because it has 3 things working for it:

-Lily Tomlin

-the nostalgia factor

-& that irritatingly catchy "What would we do without Galaxy Glue?" tune