The Incredible Shrinking Woman

If I were still a child I would perhaps give it a higher score, but from what I remember it did get a bit lame at times and the effects while good for a kid would not stand up as well now. Still, it was a funny movie about a woman whose husband is like with an ad office or with a company that makes a lot of different products. Whatever he was, his job made it so his wife came into contact with a lot of different products which in turn causes her to start to become smaller and smaller. At first there are just a few subtle signs like her appearance at a window, but soon it becomes very apparent. While she gets shorter and shorter she gains the attention of a rather dangerous person and ends up imprisoned. The film for the most part is funny, kind of strange turns here and there such as the monkey, but hey it was never meant to be a serious film. It does though get a bit to dark in the end for the type of movie it was up until that point. Still, Lily Tomlin is great in the lead role as the shrinking woman and Charles Grodin does an admirable job as the father, though it is a role he can do in his sleep.

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

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 ****

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.

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...