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Friday, December 22, 2017

MOVIE REVIEW/Downsizing
Red Herring Radar On The Fate Of The Human Race

Kristen Wiig as Audrey and Matt Damon as Paul in Alexander Payne's comedy-drama "Downsizing".  Paramount
       
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Friday, November 22, 2017
Wow. Does shrinking the human race help to preserve the environment?  I don't think that filmmaker Alexander Payne, who directed and co-wrote the comedy-drama "Downsizing" knows how to get to the answer in his sprawling film.  Detours and red herrings plague "Downsizing", which stars Matt Damon as Paul, a suburbanite who shrinks himself to alleviate financial pressures and finds that he has even more challenges. 

A Norwegian scientist creates a formula to shrink all life forms including human beings.  These newly-reduced sized humans look like shiny happy people.  They are always happy.  It looks too good to be true.  And for Paul it is.  The movie then veers off to an unhappy Paul with bad jokes from neighbors he lives amongst in Leisureland, the place where everything is supposed to be hunky dory. 

Then "Downsizing" gets muddled again and forgets about its size-challenged beings, moving through a drug-addled haze, a mysterious party guest and a Vietnamese played by Hong Chau, in an accent and affectation that is so stilted and mannered it can only be described as a caricature of Vietnamese women, which I was offended by.  The character exists as a laughing stock for the audience and seems to serve no other purpose despite any of Ms. Chau's best efforts.  Before too long she is looking into the eyes of one of the film's male characters and cooing at him with her eyes.  Why?  It's an insert-your-love-scene-here moment that doesn't fit or belong.

Topping all of this off is some poor acting by Mr. Damon, who doesn't bring the requisite connective tissue to Paul or a tired, lifeless film that feels a lot longer than two hours and fifteen minutes.  The ambling "Downsizing" doesn't have any core, conviction or direction, and it travels arduously down several different highways but can't find any exit ramp to a destination. 

The problem here is that Mr. Payne, whose characters are usually distinct, signature, quirky but relatable, have little identity or general purpose in "Downsizing".  They are flat, cardboard, surface figures.  The story isn't focused enough for an audience to take the characters to heart, invest in them or care.  I didn't care enough about any of the characters in this film, and I wish "Downsizing" had had the confidence to stick with one story, commit to its characters and make a statement about the environment and the human condition, which I thought the film would. 

Everything in "Downsizing" feels too showy, too self-referenced and forced.  Jokes aiming for comic effect aren't funny at all.  Much of the film feels like an insult.  I couldn't get past some of the poor attempts at humor.  Who was "Downsizing" making fun of?  Possibly everyone and no one at all.

This may be the largest budget Mr. Payne has worked with -- "Downsizing" takes him to his home town of Omaha, Los Angeles, Norway and at least one other location.  The intimacy just isn't there -- and usually Mr. Payne's films ("The Descendants", "Nebraska", "About Schmidt", "Sideways", "Election") possess intimacy in its characters, story threads and connections in abundance.  Usually the director's characters have depth.  I think Mr. Payne and writing partner Jim Taylor needed to write additional drafts of what looks like a downsized script.  The earthiness and connection to characters in those previous films isn't present in "Downsizing".  And that's too bad.


Also with: Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Margo Martindale, Christoph Waltz, Udo Kier, Niecy Nash.

"Downsizing" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for language including sexual references, some graphic nudity and drug use.  The film's running time is two hours and 15 minutes.
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