Film: Downsizing

GENRE: Drama, Comedy-ish

RATING: R for language & male frontal nudity
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 15 minutes

STARRING: Matt Damon (The Martian, Elysium, Bourne series)

Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds), Hong Chau (Big Little Lies)

DIRECTOR: Alexander Payne (Election, Nebraska, About Schmidt)

WRITERS: Payne & Jim Taylor (Sideways, Jurassic Park III)

PLOT: A regular guy joins other by shrinking himself down to save the planet and have a better life.  

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was intrigued by the concept from the beginning.

STORY STUFF: I loved the first half of the film. The decision, the process and the initial adjustments to downsizing were wonderfully played out. It raised a lot of questions and delved quite nicely into how civilizations work and sometimes repeat past mistakes. But then Payne asks more questions about saving humanity and it becomes too overwhelming and clunky for my liking. Also, the pacing starts to drag. It’s a shame because it started so well.

ACTING STUFF: Damon gives a good performance but nothing that amazed me. Hong Chau was pretty entertaining as a Vietnamese protestor/cleaning lady. She kind of steals the show. Waltz plays smarmy okay but he still seemed a little miscast.  

ARTISTIC STUFF: Again, the beginning is well filmed. The differences between sizes is both jarring and interesting. Eventually, you stop seeing the difference (which may be the point) but then it just looks like an average movie along with a certain blandness.  

VERDICT: Three stars out of five

SEE IT IF: You like to think a little bit while watching film

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Molly’s Game