As the spectre of global warming and an eventual apocalypse looms over humanity, some are scrambling to find solutions. In Alexander Payne’s latest sci-fi drama comedy Downsizing , one answer is an irreversible medical procedure that shrinks the human body to mere inches. Not only does it infinitely help the planet by reducing waste, small people enjoy a lavish lifestyle where a few hundred thousand dollars translate to millions. Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kriten Wiig) want to move Leisureland, a community for small people. When Audrey has a change of mind, Paul is left listless, divorced and alone. An ageing party animal Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz) and Vietnamese political dissident Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau) — handicapped and still unbelievably magnanimous — along with peppering of other characters who help Paul along.
- Director: Alexander Payne
- Cast: Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, and Kristen Wiig.
- Storyline: In a bid to save humanity, people are electing to get downsized to save the environment.
Clocking in at two hours and 15 minutes, Downsizing is excruciatingly long and slow. Plus, it confuses viewers about the crux of the film. Payne’s concept is certainly intriguing in its originality. But the execution is awfully muddled. The director uses the medical procedure to spark a discourse on one too many issues. When small people are discriminated against — since they no longer pay taxes — it’s immigration we’re supposed to reflect on. When Tran, whose village is razed to the ground, is downsized against her will and loses her leg, human rights and the ill-effects of industrialisation come to mind. Then there’s the glaring issue of saving our environment, human greed and consumption, the importance of family, being kind to one and another… the list is quite literally exhaustive.
Once Payne has superficially glossed over the aforementioned, he introduces an uncomfortable, chemistry-less and entirely tangential romance between Paul and Tran. Poor Chau is reduced to a Western caricature of a Vietnamese woman with poor English skills and a disturbingly high vocal volume. Some Norwegian characters speak with Danish accents, while others of the same descent sound entirely different.
While Chau forms the main source of the film’s barely there humour, it’s Waltz who steals the show. His portrayal of an unscrupulous Serbian party animal in an upward spike in an otherwise steady and staid graph. In a bid to make Damon’s Paul a quintessentially average middle-aged American man, Payne renders him inconsequential; someone whose plight we’d be indifferent to.
Downsizing is fuddled and over crowded with little to no conflict to take the story forward. It’s a beautiful looking film — with plush green vistas and sleek picturisation — that completely lacks substance.
