The Incredible Shrinking Woman: Collector’s Edition

Studio: Shout! Factory

Nov 14, 2017 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Suburban housewife Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) finds herself shrinking. At first, it’s a few inches; within weeks, she’s several feet shorter. Doctors are baffled, as are the scientists at the shady chemical company who employ her husband. Pat Kramer’s celebrity grows as she herself dimishes, and the nation eagerly tunes into the search for a cure before Pat disappears entirely.

Written as a vehicle for Tomlin by her longtime comedy partner Jane Wagner and loosely adapted from a Richard Matheson novel, The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a fun, high concept comedy. Particularly effective is its satirizing of consumer culture, with Kramer’s family testing an endless stream of miracle products – many of which probably could have existed in the 1970s, but seem unhealthy or far too dangerous within today’s modern views of artificial chemicals. The special effects work, which made Tomlin look believably teensy among her co-stars and surroundings, still hold up incredibly well for a movie that came out in 1981. The movie does falter in its final act, once the focus shifts from Kramer’s plight to her being kidnapped by nefarious scientists and locked up in a lab with a gorilla. (The gorilla costume was a fine piece of work from SFX titan Rick Baker, but it feels like the screenplay might have exhausted its premise if the writers were so compelled to shoehorn in so much literal monkey business.)

Shout Select’s new Collector’s Edition of The Incredible Shrinking Woman boasts high presentation quality. The bonus features are particularly exciting, best among them being a lengthy conversation between Tomlin and Wagner about the film’s development. Also included are new interviews with the film’s director, composer, and cinematographer, as well as a slide show visiting most of the movie’s locations as they appear today. All in all this is a robust disc, particularly recommended for fans of the film or Tomlin.

www.shoutfactory.com/product/the-incredible-shrinking-woman