By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Maribeth Monroe, Udo Kier, Rolf Lassgard, Ingjerd Egeberg, Soren Pilmark, Hong Chau, Neil Patrick Harris, James Van Der Beek, Laura Dern and Christoph Waltz.
Rating: Very Good.
Two Time Academy Award Winning Writer/Director Alexander Payne brings “Downsizing” a comedy with a very interesting concept and good results.
The movie centers in Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) an occupational therapist who works in an Omaha Steakhouse and lives with his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig).
In a school reunion both the Safranek`s are surprised on seeing their friends Dave (Jason Sudeikis) and Carol Johnson (Maribeth Johnson) who have downsized themselves in an irreversible process.
Both Paul and Audrey are impressed about seeing their friends in the miniature size, but Dave tries to convince Paul to do the process in order to have a better way of life.
Paul convinces Audrey to enter the “Downsizing” program which she finally accepts. The major problem is that Audrey doesn´t want to do the process and leaves her husband who´s already downsized.
Paul´s life will change radically and appreciate another way of life he has never had.
Alexander Payne is a filmmaker who has been known in his career to show the vulnerable side of human beings but in a satirical way and with “Downsizing” it´s not the exception.
The thing that I enjoyed the most of “Downsizing” was the originality of the concept of the film itself and at the same time it´s a very touching story about people who are different but at the same time they share things in common.
Also this is the first time that Alexander Payne writes an original screenplay that it´s not based in another source. He joined forces again with his partner Jim Taylor and crafted a brilliant screenplay which I´m sure is going to be an Oscar contender. Both of them are known for their work in films like “About Schmidt” and “Sideways”, which they both won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2005.
I love the fact that both Payne and Taylor broke the typical stereotype of the lab being a government facility and here we see in the opening of the film a Scandinavian Scientist inventing a procedure on it´s own.
Alexander Payne´s direction again paid off and not only the film was beautifully shot but also he directed a cast that gave very good performances and used all the tools he had at his disposal wisely.
At the same time we see in “Downsizing” so much of the humor that Payne has in most of his films which is very dark.
The performances of Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz are really good but the one who steals the show is Hong Chau who gives life to the character of Ngoc Lan Tran, a Vietnamese activist who not only is hilarious in her role but gives a very convincing performance that will be remembered by ages.
On the not so good of “Downsizing” the part that I was not convinced was the third act and the climax of the film. When they begin to mention the thing about the end of civilization is approaching I couldn´t care about it. It didn´t make any sense and the ending of the film took me by surprise. I felt that Payne and Taylor could have taken this act towards another direction.
I´ve always enjoyed every Alexander Payne film he has done; I leave the theater with a lot of reflections and earning experiences as well. He shows characters that not only they have internal conflicts but as part of an audience you feel identified with them.
One word of advice before you watch “Downsizing” is that had the tendency to be slow due to the length of the film and If you can watch any film by Alexander Payne before this one even better so you can understand the kind of film language he uses in his films.
Payne made another winner with “Downsizing” which I consider a unique film and I give it a huge recommendation.