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
