Review: Downsizing

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

While all of the parts might not completely add up and its ambition overshadows its execution, Alexander Payne's "Downsizing" is a movie that is bursting with ideas, many of which are compelling. No, the film is not among the director's best. Payne has been on quite a run, from "Election" and "About Schmidt" to "Sideways" and "The Descendants." His latest film breaks that winning streak only in that it is not as great as the aforementioned pictures. But it doesn't lack for ingenuity.

Working with what must be his largest budget to date, Payne's latest is a science fiction comedy that focuses on the importance of human kindness and, well, the extinction of our species. There's a fair amount to swallow in this film, which starts out as a kooky comedy, takes a turn for the dramatic and then ends semi-abruptly.

As the film opens, Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is living with his ailing mother, whose complaints of physical suffering cause him to ponder upon the nature of human suffering in general. Around this time, a miracle of science is unveiled - a brilliant Norwegian scientist has discovered a method to shrink human beings down to a tiny fraction of their size. The scientist believes that this will enable humans to decrease the carbon footprint they leave on the planet and, therefore, stave off mankind's seemingly inevitable end.

We cut to several years in the future. Paul is now married to Audrey (Kristen Wiig) and the two of them are considering getting downsized after learning how one's savings become multiplied rather generously when living as a tiny person. Paul, thinking that his wife is on board with the plan, takes the plunge, only to find out that not only has she had second thoughts, but is abandoning him.

Alone in Leisure Land, the man-made kingdom of the downsized, Paul becomes aimless, attempting to date a single mother and failing - and having no general purpose. His rowdy upstairs neighbor, Dusan (Christoph Waltz), and a friend of that man (whose purpose is somewhat nebulous - but who cares? He's played by Udo Kier!) draw him into their libertine pursuits, but Paul quickly becomes fascinated with Dusan's housekeeper, Ngoc (Hong Chau), a Vietnamese woman who was imprisoned for protesting her government and lost a leg in the process.

Ngoc mistakenly believes that Paul is a doctor after he tries to work on her prosthetic leg and draws him into charitable works, of a sort at least. The story then takes a complete 360 as Ngoc, Dusan and Paul travel to Norway - in the film's least convincingly thought out narrative transition - to meet with the doctor who originally discovered the method of downsizing.

Dr. Jorgen Asbjornsen (Rolf Lassgard) has gathered together a small community of hippies and free thinkers who are plotting the means to live underground for hundreds of years in Norway after news breaks that high amounts of methane gas being emitted from the arctic will result in the human race's curtain call in a number of years. Paul - in search of some meaning for his life - considers joining the group, but must decide between that or staying in the dying world above-ground with Dusan and Ngoc.

As I'd mentioned, there's a whole lot going on in this film. It's the type of picture that occasionally feels messy in that it is all over the place - and yet, this is mostly not a detriment. I'd agree with some assessments that "Downsizing" is toward the bottom of Payne's cinematic catalogue, but consider that most of his previous films have been very good to great. There's much to admire in "Downsizing" - its chutzpah and relevancy, visuals filled with lovely imagery (a large rose, gigantic dandelions with the shadow of a mosquito, Leisure Land itself) and some strong performances, especially Chau, who steals nearly every scene she is in. "Downsizing" may just be a good movie in an overall stellar oeuvre, but it's imaginative in ways that most studio-backed films rarely tend to be.