Big heart with small pay-off
SCI-FI COMEDY RUNS OUT OF STEAM Reveals how difficult it is to find utopia.
ownsizing is a bit if a conundrum. It’s an imaginative film, worth watching, but it also feels like it really ran out of steam in the third act, making you leave the cinema almost as if investing in these characters was pointless.
But, all in all, Downsizing is an interesting time spent in the cinema, thanks to its big conceptual idea where your humdrum life can become more so if you shrink yourself down to a few centimetres tall.
The film imagines what might happen if as a solution to overpopulation, people shrink themselves and live in alternate communities. As small beings, we cut down our carbon footprint and life ultimately becomes far less expensive.
Glossy magazine ads tell people how much further money goes in a miniaturised world and with the promise of a better life, Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.
But Paul soon finds out that a smaller world doesn’t really mean smaller problems – and that’s
Starring:
Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz and Hong Chau. Alexander Payne. PG LV.
Director: Classification:
where Downsizing excels. It presents you with an alternate reality that shows how difficult it is to achieve utopia when humanity is involved.
The film’s biggest flaw is its biggest twist happens 50 minutes in.