The Incredible Shrinking Man

n°1 - 6/10 Steve

April 27, 2005

Something of a classic, but marred by a kind of forced earnestness. Man exposed to some kind of radiation begins shrinking. At first, thought to be an unusual disease, but soon it is obvious that he is not merely getting shorter (as might happen with some kind of degenerative bone disorder) but proportionately smaller until he is of doll-like size. The scenes in which he is with his wife look and sound phony, with wooden acting; but the scenes of him alone, struggling to cope with a world in which ordinary objects become increasingly gigantic to him, are imaginative and exciting. As an aside, I'd recommend Harry Bates' wonderful story, "A Matter of Size," as a totally different take on the theme of how a man reduced in size struggles to survive (film was NOT based on this story -- but the story is very highly recommended).