Review: Downsizing (2017)

Comedy/Sci-Fi

On the shelves since 2009, this Sci-Fi comedy/drama project from director Alexander Payne finally saw the light of day in late 2017 after the award-winning flick The Descendants(2011) and the Oscar-nominated Nebraska(2013) filled his schedule. Although Downsizing(2017) couldn’t score any Oscar nominations, this social/humanist satire has a special sweet taste of quasi-intellectual situations filled with comedic dialogs that create a lavish and entertaining cinematic experience.

The story centers on medium-class American Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) willing to undergo a revolutionary medical procedure known as “Downsizing” in which the human body shrinks to four inches tall in order to pursue a better and wealthier lifestyle on a fancy eco-friendly small colony (Leisureland) already populated with shrunken people from all over the world. We’ll follow Paul as he discovers his true calling and honest romance throughout the movie.

Ironically, it’s best to leave actual science out of this story and let the script flow between the sociologic and humanist angle of it. This video by “It’s ok to be smart” explains why shrinking the human body won’t be as easy as the movie conceives the idea:

It’s kind of hard to think about purposely shrink your body permanently and try to keep a “normal” lifestyle. Disney’s Honey, I shrunk the kids(1989) presented the pros and cons in a very familiar and cotton-candied way, but just to create a perspective, can you imagine having an unpleasant encounter with an angry venomous spider which, in proportion, would have the size of a truck? how about falling down the coffee table which, in proportion, would be a 20ft fall? a very dangerous place the world would be indeed; but also screenwriter Payne deals with this disadvantages creating Leisureland, a controlled and supervised utopian colony which offers the best real state properties and commodities a (small) man can have. Since your personal “full sized” savings and assets also fall in proportion when you decide to shrink, Leisureland can offer middle class couples the opportunity to live the capitalist dream life to its full.

That is the main reason Paul and her wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) initially decide to downsize and this is one of the main plot discourses in the film. The pursuit of happiness through material belongings and the constant craving for a better social status overwhelms us and commands us to take ambitious decisions. Shrinking ourselves for a “bigger” lifestyle results in a bittersweet irony and a metaphor as our vulnerable will surrenders to our vicious greed.

Paul quickly finds out that his decision may had been a little radical and fallacious when his wife drops out of the procedure and dumps him right after he becomes four inches tall. Shocked and alone, he now has to face a new world by himself and deal with it as best as he can; Leisureland immediately becomes a dystopian nightmare as Paul falls into the bottomless pit of a mediocre comfort zone that includes a soul-crushing job, senseless relationships and a lack of self-confidence that slowly starts to rot his mind.

Enter Dusan Mircovic (Christoph Waltz), a wealthy cultivated party man that lives upstairs Paul’s and hosts loud promiscuous parties quite often. A man of taste and smart enough to find the cracks in Leisureland’s legal status-quo to benefit through trading and maybe other not so legal businesses. As the story unfolds, we will discover Dusan is a great antagonist; he will confront Paul´sideas and, in a very comic way, show him alternatives to his, actual quote, pathetic life. Being the wealthy, hedonist successful figure Paul had always aspired to be, Dusan will become a sort of guru to Paul, leading him directly or not, to the freedom maybe he was too scared or ignorant to grasp.

Waltz’s role as Dusan is a great asset for the movie; his character demands a certain kind of comedic essence with very good joke lines in the script, but at the same time he will carry critical existentialist values that will ignite Paul’s passion and interest to change his life. Waltz delivers flawless.

It is within Dusan`s dwellings where Paul gets to meet a particular cleaning lady by the name of Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau); a grouchy and quite bossy ex-revolutionary who once fought pro human rights and against poverty before she was imprisoned, downsized and sent to the slums just outside Leisureland. Paul will be attracted by the life-force Ngoc emanates and will follow her to the skid row where she lives; a bleak and harsh segment of society that Paul wasn’t familiar to and where he will begin to explore the dark side of capitalism and class-struggle.

Ngoc’s role embodies a playful and childish Asian stereotype that flows on a naive and modest but courageous personality. She’s a commanding but very sincere woman who cares about the people around her. Ngoc will boost Paul’s inner good and thus slowly discover the value of socialism by helping the old, poor and disadvantaged in an already neglected and forgotten community; together they will develop a romance that will find a conflict at the climax of the film.

Newcomer Hong Chau brings an admirable and super comic role as Ngoc Lan Tran; she brings to life an already satirical character in Payne’s script and adds her charm and talent. Although the personification of Ngoc as an Asian woman with a funny accent, bad english and laughable lines could fall into stereotypical flaws, Chau makes her best effort and accomplishes to blur those critic lines and create an enjoyable character.

At the climax of the story, Paul’s new mindset will be confronted with a quite radical collective eco-friendly idea that will be unraveled during a unscheduled trip to Norway along with Ngoc, Dusan and ‘partner in crime’ Konrad (Udo Kier) on which they will meet with the first group of people who underwent the ‘downsizing’ procedure a few years ago; This futuristic and pioneering society fear that the world is about to collapse due to the constant methane emissions and general pollution on the planet. Willing to take a step ahead in their visionary intellect and to preserve humanity, they have created an underground habitat that will keep them safe at least the first three-hundred years before earth finds an ecological balance again. Paul and his mates arrive just before this peculiar group leaves behind ground level and begin their idealistic quest. Paul feels infatuated with the whole idea and mission trying to give his life some wider existential purpose and the choice of going in the tunnel will be offered to him; it will come down to whether he decides to fulfill his recent spiritual calling or finds some value in his present lifestyle.

It is within this context that the story adds a substantial humanist value. Paul’s decision about going in the tunnel or staying with family and friends is not relevant; He has freed himself of the oppressive materialistic burden and greedy banalities of his past-self. He now appreciates life and the planet we live in; his present and future thoughts and aspirations now center around the infinite possibilities of improving as a person and as part of his society, by helping others you help yourself, and by helping yourself you help the world become a better place to live in.

Downsizing may pass as a popcorn movie because it carries amusing and humorous sequences but at the same time the story bears meaningful and allegorical concepts that complement the narrative. Alexander Payne’s latest creation may not be a high-grossing product as The Descendants was, but it surely is a captivating and enjoyable filmic experience.

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