Alexander Payne has made his last three strong movies and is one of the most underrated directors that should be more praised because of his concise narratives and interesting characters: Sideways, The Descendants and Nebraska. So, he is marrying a social context/commentary with his next project with a genre, science fiction. I thought his next project is a bold but different movie for Payne to tackle the social commentary as to why people are "downsizing" into another world. Unfortunately, his ideas are overshadowed by a big jumbled mess of problems that it does not become a total package. It is a package of ideas that does not cobble together.
In Norway, Dr. Jorgen Asbjornsen (Rolf Lassgard) performed on shrinking lab mice and his experiment succeeds. Five years later, Dr. Andreas Jacobsen (Soren Pilmark) is speaking to the people regarding overpopulation, and thus, he and Jorgen have found a solution to create another world for another population. People all around the world witness this amazing breakthrough including Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), an everyday man who had to care for his dying mother and is married to Audrey (Kristen Wiig). While at a high school reunion, they meet their friends, Dave and Carol Johnson (Jason Sudeikis and Maribeth Monroe), who went through the downsizing process. They love living in the community with the small people called Leisureland. Paul and Audrey attend a seminar in which another couple (Neil Patrick Harris and Laura Dern) discuss the benefits of being small and living in Leisureland, which attract both Paul and Audrey.
After the Safraneks' mortgage application has been denied, they decide to talk with the Leisureland officials and they both decide to go through the downsizing process. Paul and Audrey fly to the facility where they decide to perform the "downsizing" process and after hearing all the precautions which include a fatal side effect and being asked questions, they do not mind. Paul is shaved from head to toe in the process and discovers (sort of a "tiny spoiler but it is in the beginning") that Audrey backed out of the process and he becomes depressed, not knowing what to do now.
This is a disappointment from me because Alexander Payne can do no wrong and it may be the first movie that I have disliked from him. He has a great concept that is so visionary and ambitious that it could be translated to today's issues or the future issues of overpopulation. But, no, it is basically tone and an exploration of the world in three different sorts of genres: a fantastical science fiction, a party-like comedy and then a social commentary/drama and none of them gel together. The movie meanders into analyzing how to be happy and fruitful in the beginning but basically the story goes all over the place like it has no sense of direction.
Matt Damon does what he can but I did not think his character was that interesting as he is sort of the everyday character that is us going through this process and into this world. But, it is basically a character discovering things and ideas in Leisureland. It is not a well-developed character. The movie kicks up a notch when Christoph Waltz is introduced in the second act, who plays a party-boy neighbor, who wants to have a good time in Leisureland. He has fun in this character. Hong Chau plays a Vietnamese activist that has been smuggled into the United States. She gives the best performance but her character felt like a last-minute idea to be thrown in to give a deeper meaning of the downsizing life. Plus, you can debate that she is a caricature but I think she is character but the third act becomes more preachy than positively different.
Again, this movie is all over the place and it is a narrative mess and you will get lost when the tone shifts in certain places that will get you confused as to what kind of movie it will be. I felt like I was watching an idea from Spike Jonze than an Alexander Payne movie. I mean Payne tackles a bit of suburbia into two different worlds here but he tackles in science fiction and it is so ambitious. However, it seems that so many ideas and politics are intervening and get boggled down to a big, anti-climactic mess that is disappointing. Oh, well.
**
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