Downsizing is not what it claims to be. Packaged like a comedy set in a weird social experiment, it’s nothing like that at all, becoming a textbook case of Hollywood not trusting its audience to accept what the film’s true vision is so basically outright lying about it to try and lure ticket buyers into the theater. What a shame. Because so, you probably dismissed it from the start and didn’t bother giving it a chance or went in (as carefully targeted by the studio) with the wrong impression and quickly wrote it off. Time to reconsider. Here’s 5 reasons why it’s time you finally watch Downsizing. Some spoilers ahead.
No, It’s Not What You Think
Let’s keep talking about the bait and switch. The marketing will have you believe the story is about a couple named Paul (Matt Damon) and Audrey Safranek (Kristen Wiig), who, unable to reach their dreams in life decide to commit to a something new, that of reducing their actual size to about 5 inches tall, a technology developed in the movie’s universe fifteen years earlier and quickly becoming an accepted alternative to the modern world where one can potentially live in wealth. The first third of the film is a convincing black comedy, where Paul struggles with unfulfillment while seeing others find success as small people. Giving minor spoilers away, only he goes through with it, at the last possible moment, Audrey unable to leave behind her ‘big’ life, abandoning Paul to his little future. And it’s here where the movie most likely lost its audience, the story abruptly switching gears as it becomes a heavy tale of personal exploration that serves like an odyssey of sorts to discover the true meaning of life. How so?
It’s Unconventional
Loading the beginning with characters we believe will be fixtures in the story, director Alexander Payne has other plans for us, nearly removing everyone that Paul knows from his time ‘big’ from his experience while ‘small’, including characters we were certain – again, based on the marketing – would be integral to the story. That’s a risk, and for a while, it leaves you expecting at any time they might show up again, but that’s not what this is about. Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris, and Laura Dern, who all have impact at the start, are for all intents and purposes, cameos in Paul’s adventure. And the dark humor disappears almost entirely, leaving this a growing existential trip through one man’s breakthrough that once you take hold of, is rather moving. Admittedly, it’s a bracing shift, especially once you realize that no, the movie is not going to be about a small man and his big wife trying to sort things out like a TV romcom. That has potential of course, but that’s not where Payne wants to take us, instead, painting a much deeper picture about the fallacy of utopia and the value of your time on this chaotic world.
Casting Matt Damon
Alexander Payne had originally wanted Paul Giamatti in the lead, but for whatever reasons, Damon got the part. While that first choice would have given this film a whole different feel perhaps, Damon is a good pick, adding on a few pounds and almost fearlessly taking to the complex character through a few difficult stages. Damon’s job is to carry us through the absurd and does so with subtlety, using his body and often very few words to express much about the pain and confusion he is experiencing as his world collapses. There’s a great, extended moment that begins with a simple dinner in his apartment with one expectation that becomes further transformative as it moves to the apartment above, that of Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz), a European entrepreneur who is taking advantage of a few loopholes in the system to get filthy rich. This is the film’s testing ground for whether you’re in or out to be sure, but for those who let this be what it is, marks the arrival of a new Paul, and Damon embraces it with nuance and great respect for where Paul needs to go.
Size Doesn’t Matter
When you think of movies about shrinking things, typically, these films feel obligated to constantly contrast big and small, to remind and poke fun of the differences. Sure, it’s funny and in the right movie, such as Disney’s Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, is clever and cute. Downsizing isn’t about the jokes and rarely even puts the two worlds together, aside from a big cracker and a big rose, instead showing that Paul doesn’t fit in either world very well, the point being that it takes one to recognize their value wherever they are as being the size that matters. That’s it. It’s smart and allows the film to be about the characters rather than the world they live in. Good stuff.
Ngoc Lan Tran
So, here we are. We’ve talked about the film, the characters, the plot, the meaning behind it and the journey it takes you on, and all of that would be worthy enough to give Downsizing a shot, certainly welcome to like or dislike it all you want. But then there is Ngoc Lan Tran, played by the astonishingly vibrant Hong Chau, a Vietnamese woman in the film who represents the true dark side of the downsizing process. Avoiding all possible further spoilers, what Chau does with this character is nothing short of heartbreaking, Tran becoming everything that the second half of the movie is about where our eyes become open to something we didn’t expect at all. This is really her movie. It’s her story. In fact, this movie could have been entirely focused on her, absent of Paul altogether, and this would have been even better. Chau’s performance is hopeful and endearing and achingly raw, making her the only thing you will mostly likely remember when it’s all done, the character’s incomplete use of English forcing her to speak with directiness, without the circuitous flare for avoiding hurting others feelings giving her an extraordinary voice throughout. She is every reason it’s time you finally watch Downsizing.