At times it’s a bit of a downer, but in the end, Downsizing might just be a miniature masterpiece…and certainly something to reflect on.
This is a not your average black comedy. It’s grown-up sci-fi and it’s – at the very least – super smart. Writer/Director, Alexander Payne, has delivered some of our most beloved award- winning films. Lesser known is Nebraska a 2013 movie shot in b/w that depicted an aging man bonding with his son. The two ‘road trip’ it to claim a lottery sweepstake. It was one of my top ten of that year.
But, Payne ’s best known for his hilarious Sideways also a road trip flick, about two ambivalent wine connoisseurs headed to Napa. Then there’s The Descendants starring George Clooney, that reflects on the important things in life….like two daughters and a family legacy, following his wife’s boating accident.
The idea for this latest film – Payne’s most outlandish – is to combine all of his past quirky efforts into the American dream, and then address what might happen if you could downsize (literally your physical self). This would save the planet and at the same time afford you a super wealthy lifestyle. Sounds good, right?
The story opens in a could-really-exist Norway institute where they’ve just discovered how to create the first miniature man. Five years later in Turkey, the man is revealed in ‘awe’ as he stands on a tiny podium to an audience of Einstein-looking ‘big’ scientists.
Then it’s 1950, America, and Paul Safrenek (Matt Damon) is an occupational therapist living with his wife (Kristin Wiig) in an emotionally small life in the same house he grew up in. If they’re already living emotionally small….why not go smaller? The idea is It will make them well…BIGGER in lifestyle!
According to the Guru (Neil Patrick Harris) of Leisure Land Estates, going small – six inches tall – will provide sustainability and save the environment and growing population. A bag of (four years of) waste from thirty-six tiny people can be contained in the size of a Hefty bag.
There’s neighbors David (Jason Sudakis) and Carol Johnson, little people who got small, and are now living the dream of suburban royalty. So maybe it’s time to buy into this time-share-ish- type nonsense, with all-inclusive packages that include not only your downsized mortgage, but tennis and health club facilities. The mortgage-payment-to-income ratio is appealing, too. The only catch….the shrinking process is irreversible. Gulp.
For any baby-bomber with a shrinking income in a bursting economy, it’s hard to wrap our heads around the opposite of what we’ve been conditioned to believe….two cars in the driveway of our suburban house, jewels and fancy vacations might just make sense after all. So, at what age do we give up all that we’ve tried so hard to earn? Age 20, 30 or 60 to join Leisure Land? Why not step into this dream right now?
But first it’s going to take a little surgery….which is quite amusing and certainly original…
Damon signs some forms and is moved to a gurney, naked. He’s shaved, sedated and shrunk in about the time of an afternoon, and the surgeons even throw in some complimentary dental work…fillings removed from the start.
So here he is, living the dream in his McMansion of Tiny Suburbia decorated like the cover of Town & Country. It’s too bad Damon’s character is so vanilla and one-dimensional-boring. It would have been delightful to see him half as exciting as the Paul Giamatti character in Sideways.
Thank God for Dusan (Christoph Waltz) Damon’s nasty Playboy-Eurotrash-neighbor who knows how to have a good time in this contemporary Lilliput. He’s far from subtle as the film’s message of what’s really at stake here.
But as the Budha says, ‘Wherever you go there you are.’ Even in a shrunken world of wealth… our own internal problems still exist. Terrorism, corruption, loneliness, and illegal immigrants, (even tiny illegal immigrants entering our country via Target crates). Trump will have to build a very ‘tiny’ wall.
Is it possible that the ego leads to suffering no matter what? The movie certainly leaves a lot for us – in our chaotic world – to ponder. It’s certainly the highest concept film of the year, but it’s not necessarily the best. Though in the end, we can’t help but wonder…if we’re all looking for direction, maybe a shot into Leisure Land, isn’t such a bad and GIANT option. Two and a half tiaras