Review of Downsizing (2017) by James R — 21 Dec 2017

What a unique film that was quite a bit different from what I thought it was going to be. From director Alexander Payne (The Descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013)) Downsizing is a film thats set in the future a little bit where a brilliant doctor named Dr.

Jorgen Asbjornsen (Rolf Lassgard) has perfected a process to make people small! Well about 5 inches tall. The benefits for mankind are endless because of less waste and being able to sustain oneself with far less things.

Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is a guy that just doesn't feel like he's ever achieved his full potential. Moving back home before becoming a full fledged doctor to take care of his sick mom Paul sees Dr.

Jorgens invention and is amazed. Flash forward ten years later and Paul and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to become little people since it would help them out financially. Unfortunately, Audrey can't pull the trigger leaving Paul by himself in a luxury little people place called Leisure Town.

There Paul is miserable for a year and not in much of a better position than he was in the "normal" world. When he finally breaks loose and decides to live a little by going to his neighbor Dusan's (Christoph Waltz) party he wakes up the next morning still there.

He meets a cleaning lady named Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau) who has a tragic backstory about why she's there. Paul begins to help Ngoc and realizes that Leisure Town isn't all that it cuts itself out to be.

Overall, the film has a great message about a few things. There's a central theme about full filling your potential, realizing what you have, the dangers of society and what every society deals with.

And most surprisingly it's a story about a man that finds love in the strangest of places. It's well acted for being a silly movie about people getting tiny. I really enjoyed Waltz's performance because he's absolutely hilarious here.

Chau does a fantastic job too and you really feel for her character. I will say the movie does start off a bit slow and it does take a bit to finally get the feel of the story down, but I enjoyed it. Payne does a great job here and much like his three previous films Nebraska, The Descendants and Sideways (2004) we are witnessing a man change through events and coming to realization about what his purpose is and how life is.

It's some deeper stuff that may get lost on some people thinking it's just suppose to be a weird comedy. It's a much more thoughtful film that I ended up liking a lot more than I thought I would.