This holiday season I was a victim of a “bait and switch.”

No, I’m not talking about a sale at a local store or a purchase I made online. I’m talking about a movie.

My wife rented Downsizing from our Netflix account and asked if I was interested in watching it. I told her yes. The cast included SNL alumnus Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis, and, from the commercials I saw, I was expecting a fun comedic film.

The film’s title refers to the premise that, for a variety of reasons, people voluntarily decide to have themselves shrunk permanently to a height of five or six inches tall. As might be expected, this leads to some light-hearted, humorous moments: interactions between normal-sized and shrunken people, recruitment marketing for a lilliputian community, the shrinking process itself. However, once the main character (Matt Damon) is shrunk (around the 30-minute mark), the movie takes a much more serious turn. Comedy is, for the most part, left behind and we are presented with a film that challenges us to contemplate topics such as environmental concerns, world economics, ethics in medicine and science, social class struggles, human value, and personal responsibility. Furthermore, about a third of the way through the film, the whole “being shrunk” thing becomes a non-issue. Sure, the viewer is periodically reminded that everyone is five inches tall, but since they live in an environment that is scaled to fit, it is easy to forget everyone is small. Additionally, a person’s size is irrelevant to many of the issues presented in the film, and they could have been handled without the gimmick of miniaturization. I can’t say that the movie wasn’t compelling. However, when my expectations were for comedy and instead I’m given tragedy, I soon found myself wondering when it was going to end. With a two hour and fifteen-minute running time that wasn’t going to happen soon.

Later Deb asked me how many stars I would give Downsizing for the Netflix review. While the movie could have easily been three to four stars out of five, I told her I would give it a two, simply on the fact that I felt it was marketed wrong. If I was expecting a serious commentary, or at the very least came in with no preconceived notions, I could see myself enjoying the movie more than I did. However, feeling the film was marketed as something different than what it turned out to be really soured my opinion.

Of course, this isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this. Every now and then I see a movie that is marketed one way but turns out to be something very different than what I expected. When that happens I can’t help but wonder why. Does the marketing team seriously have no clue about the tone of the film? Or do they lack faith that the film is strong enough to draw an audience on its own merits, feeling they have to trick people to get them into the theater? A less likely, but still plausible, explanation is that the movie’s vision changed during editing after the advertising campaign was complete. Whatever the reason, I would think most viewers would leave the theater disappointed instead of pleasantly surprised, hurting any positive “word of mouth” referrals.

Have you ever been the victim of a “bait and switch,” movie or otherwise? Please tell us your favorite stories in the comments below.