Downsizing (Alexander Payne, 2017, USA/Norway)

Downsizing, the largest budget film of Alexander Payne's career, was originally conceived as a vehicle for Paul Giamatti. It is interesting to contemplate what might have happened should Giamatti have stayed in that role. The film stars Matt Damon as Paul Safranek, a man who decides to undergo a "shrinking" procedure so that he can live a new life in an experimental community of tiny people. While most claim the environmental benefits of shrinking are their reason for undergoing the procedure, in reality, it is an easy way for middle Americans to expand their standard of living, as the dollar goes much further when you are 5 inches tall.

Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's script is loaded with ideas, but one gets the sense that they were in a rush to get many of them onto the page and into the film. This concept is so big that it almost deserves a full series, and sometimes it does feel like there are too many loose ends that deserve to be explored in this universe. The journey of Matt Damon's character is just one aspect of a film that also has at its core a good deal of satire.

The most significant characters outside of Matt Damon are Hong Chau as Ngoc Lan Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant and political refugee who befriends Paul, as well as Christoph Waltz as Dusan Mirkovic, a Serbian profiteer and man of leisure. It is easy to see why Downsizing didn't resonate with audiences, as the film is more observational in its approach and hardly laugh-a-minute. In reality, the film is often quite contemplative and at times depressing. While it is tempting to say that Payne bit off more than he could chew here, one does have to admire the film for its ambition and scope.

7/10