Synopsis
A social satire in which a guy realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself.
When scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to over-population, Paul (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in order to get small and move to a new downsized community - a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.
The greatest science fiction stories generally start with a single, significant change to the world, then consider what other changes would follow. Ambitious science fiction considers radical changes to culture and humanity, and possibly to the entire universe. The smaller-scale stuff might just consider how a hobby or an industry looks different with the advent of one new technology. Meanwhile, bad science fiction adds superficial changes to a familiar world, then loses track of those changes, and gets bogged down in familiar stories. There’s nothing more disappointing in the genre than a great idea that ends up buried under a mediocre story.
Initially, Downsizing tracks the cultural, social, political, and environmental changes that come from such a vast technological shift. But before long, Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor narrow their focus considerably. As the film wears on, they get further and further from the ideas that make the whole conceit unique and exciting. Like the protagonist, the story shrinks down to a fraction of its size, and becomes much less interesting in the process.
It’s the dullest route through a fascinating story. Downsizing is packed with familiar faces in small roles, including Margo Martindale, Don Lake, James Van Der Beek, and Niecy Nash. Neil Patrick Harris and Laura Dern are particular standouts as shills for Leisureland Estates, in a marvelously spry, wry scene that mimics an infomercial combined with a hotel room sales seminar. But it’s easy to feel that any one of these characters is living a more interesting life than Paul. He’s the boring eye at the center of a dynamic whirlwind, but as the film goes on, it focuses more and more on his limited emotional palate and straightforward, unnuanced reactions. It’s like watching a donkey follow whatever carrot is in front of him at any given moment.
Downsizing is crammed with commentary, much of it random and unconnected as in the third act and a Noah’s Ark scenario. It’s like a last-minute clean-out-the-fridge casserole consisting of various orphaned ingredients. Payne is better than this. He’s certainly better than a running joke about herpes that has little to no comedic payoff.
ReplyDeleteAs a filmmaker with a penchant for sharp, observant humor, Payne’s best work examines a single and identifiable character, typically in midlife crises, whose struggles are relatable (Election, Sideways, Nebraska). With Downsizing, he takes the same everyman character, makes him dull, and then places him in a situation that changes at a whim.
Paul and his wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), decided to make a plunge when their mortgage application is rejected due to a poor earnings-to-debt ratio. They learn that their assets – all $150K of them – will be worth more than $12M in “Leisureland.” So they take the leap but, when Paul awakens, he learns that everything didn’t go as expected. Instead of living in the lap of luxury, he’s forced to rent an apartment living beneath the obnoxious Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz) and take a job for a cleaning service run by Vietnam refugee Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), who was forced by her government to undergo the downsizing process.
ReplyDeleteShrinkery has nothing to do with psychiatry in “Downsizing,” though Alexander Payne’s social satire has a crazy-making amount of stuff on its mind. The basic premise is intriguing and visually delightful: a scientific breakthrough that could solve overpopulation and reduce humanity’s impact on the environment to sustainable proportions by shrinking people to a tiny fraction of their normal size.
ReplyDeleteEnticed by this “get small” dream to live the rich life in a doll-sized mansion and have the financial wherewithal to afford the best of everything, Paul gets downsized, only to learn post-shrinkage that his wife (Kristen Wiig) changed her mind about joining him and stayed in the full-size world. A divorce follows, which is really more about giving Paul a fresh start in this place, as his tiny paradise proves to have its own big problems, while his past and present are made irrelevant.
From the opening scene, in a Norwegian laboratory, we realize that the necessary science is up and running. Moreover, its ethical basis is sound. Given that the planet is overpopulated, we are told, “the one practical, humane, and lasting solution to humanity’s greatest problem” is to give some of those humans—volunteers only—such a magical zapping that an entire family can be borne around in a cat basket. The average male will contract to thirteen centimetres or so, along the lines of a full-grown parsnip. And nobody is more average than Paul. He is the credible shrinking man.
ReplyDeleteA less tasteful director might have revelled in the danger, the venom, and the sheer fun to be had in the kingdom of the pint-size, whereas Payne, ever scrupulous, is more attentive to minor acts of kindness than to the proportions of the folk who perform them.