Review of The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) by Edith N — 03 Apr 2010

The Metaphors Get Kind of Lost in the Adaptation.

Okay, technically, I haven't read the book. I've never read any Richard Matheson, as I think we established back when we were watching Will Smith in a desolate Manhattan. However, Stephen King summed it up for me in great deal in [i]Danse Macabre[/i], including a quote from Matheson himself expressing irritation at the ending monologue. (He preferred ambiguity to cheesy metaphysics.) Given that he presumably talked to Matheson himself about it, I think King can safely be said not to be reading too much into the psychology. In fact, he even speculates at one point that the Freudians are reading some things into it which aren't intended to be there. However, there's only so much metaphor you can fit into 81 minutes. Besides, a lot of people don't really think that science fiction can be thought-provoking and don't want it to be.

While on his honeymoon, Scott Carey (Grant Williams) gets coated with some mist which makes him sparkly. Some time later, he also gets sprayed with pesticide, which reacts with the sparkly stuff and causes him to start shrinking. Hence title. The movie goes through a couple of distinct sections, starting with Scott's first discovery that he's shrinking, moving to when he's a media freak, and then showing him trapped in his own basement. It is that last part which is arguably most interesting, though there are aspects to the earlier sequences which would be interesting with more time spent on them. And, of course, there's the code, which means that some of the sexuality of the original book does not come through on the screen. It did feel, though, as though there were an implication that Louise (Randy Stuart), his wife, got involved with Charlie (Paul Langton), his brother, once he disappeared.

Part of the problem with this movie is that too much happens in the story. We need the setup to know what gets Scott down into that basement at that size in the first place. No, the explanation for his shrinking does not in so many words make sense, but there does kind of need to be one. At the very least, we need to see his life before so as to have something to compare with his life after. It also doesn't work if it goes directly from normal to smaller than a spider. The real action is down in that basement, facing that spider, but that doesn't mean it's the place to start. Unfortunately, the short run time means that no section really gets given the attention it probably ought in order for the story as a whole to hang together properly, except maybe the first.

The special effects on this movie are actually quite good. A lot of use is clearly made of forced perspective and oversized sets, which in some cases work better and cheaper than CGI. Okay, the spider at the end was a tarantula, because they're larger and easier to control than small, house-dwelling spiders. However, in many places, Scott blends seamlessly with his surroundings, because they have been built for just that purpose. Some camera trickery is required in post-production, because forced perspective isn't enough for all shots with Scott and Louise. And, of course, anything involving his being smaller than an animal is done in the lab. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it looks fake; quite often, it does not, or anyway no more so than most studio interiors.

No one ever seems to know what to make of this story. There was the horrible '70s version with Lily Tomlin, which Matheson washed his hands of entirely. Rumour has it that the upcoming 2012 remake will star Eddie Murphy, which does not bode at all well. The story is about power, both in the gaining and the losing. It's not about wackiness; the humour is meant to be grim. You're supposed to imagine yourself as Scott Carey, not laugh at him. Even Murphy's sympathetic characters are clowns. Doubtless there is humour to be found in the story--again, I haven't read it. However, all great stories have some somewhere. It's just that this is not a comedy. No more is it a tract about the infinite nature of the universe. Book-Scott runs into a new world of possibilities; there was no need to invoke God.