Written by Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Producers Mark Johnson, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig
Music Rolfe Kent
Cinematography Phedon Papamichael
After his masterpieces The Descendants (2011) and Nebraska (2013), writer-director Alexander Payne is back with something ambitious: Downsizing. The title refers to a medical procedure that shrinks people to cut down on human waste (the smaller the person, the less waste they produce) in hopes of saving the planet from disaster.
The film follows occupational therapist Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), who decides to go through the procedure with his wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig). When Audrey backs out, Paul has to rethink who he is and what he believes in. Along the way, he befriends Vietnamese activist Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau) and a pair of aging playboys, Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz) and Joris Konrad (Udo Kier).
Paul is an everyman, stuck in a tiring job he never wanted and always dreaming of finding his purpose. It’s only when his high school friend Dave (Jason Sudeikis) shows up at a reunion after being downsized that Paul decides to “go small” too. The everyman story is nothing new, but it’s an entertaining setup. Unfortunately, the film wanders off in other directions, and while none of them are terrible, they leave the plot feeling choppy.
Damon is adequate as Paul, though he’s not the most interesting performance here. That honor goes to Hong Chau, who steals every scene she’s in. At first I assumed her character would just be played for laughs, but I was quickly proven wrong. She gives one of the most layered performances in the film as a woman who was shrunk against her will by her government, which cost her a leg.
Ngoc Lan’s home is where we finally see the ugly side of Leisureland. Just like real life, there’s a poverty-stricken community outside the upper-class one, full of starving families and sick people, almost all of them non-white. Ngoc Lan looks after dozens of them, bringing food and medicine, and Paul quickly comes to admire her. It’s one of the best things about the film, because it shines a light on a world most people choose to ignore, and Chau is often very funny along the way.
Waltz’s Dusan is almost her moral opposite. He’s a happy-go-lucky playboy who loves partying nearly as much as money, and he’s extremely likable. He isn’t as important or layered as Ngoc Lan, but he takes the spotlight with ease. Waltz does what he always does, delivering a devilishly charming performance that has you enamored no matter how vile the character gets.
Unfortunately, the film never amounts to much more than meets the eye. It introduces complex themes and ideas, then simplifies them so much that there’s nothing left to chew on. Problems like helping others or protecting the environment get fixed in a few minutes or brushed aside altogether. The tone doesn’t help either. It never feels quite like a drama or quite like a comedy.
Payne deserves credit for trying to deliver several important messages while also making you laugh. It’s an ambitious movie, with themes of environmentalism, white privilege, and community, but it gets bogged down by an uneven tone and a 135-minute runtime. There are some remarkable performances and a couple of good laughs, but Downsizing ultimately comes up short when it could have stood so much taller.
