Downsizing (2017) *

Directed by:  Alexander Payne

Starring:  Matt Damon, Hong Chau, Christoph Waltz, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Udo Kier, Neil Patrick Harris, Laura Dern

Downsizing is all concept with its only amusing parts spoiled for us in the trailers.    The movie lumbers for 135 minutes without any sort of satisfying payoff.    It wants to be director/writer Payne's usual social satire mixed with feel-good liberalism about doing the right thing after all even if you are only five inches tall.    Downsizing doesn't go anywhere and, worse yet, it is in no hurry to get there anyway.

The concept, which I'm sure you've heard of by now, is how scientists discover a way to shrink humans to five inches in height (although curiously the people after they are shrunk still seem to be of varying heights).    The theory is that smaller people would consume less waste and thus help the planet pull back from the brink of self-destruction due to climate change.    People's reasons for downsizing are not entirely altruistic, as they learn a dollar stretches a lot further when you are smaller. 

The shrunken people live like kings in small colonies across the world, but Downsizing has a message, and that is even in this seemingly Utopian world, there will always be haves and have-nots.  Paul Safranek (Damon) is an Omaha occupational therapist who along with his wife Audrey (Wiig)  becomes increasingly interested in downsizing when they realize they are the full-size version of a have not.    In a spoiler the trailers gave away, Audrey wimps out and leaves Paul alone in the downsized world of Leisureland, which sounds more like a theme park than a community.

One of the running gags of Downsizing is how people keep mispronouncing Paul's last name and, if that is a running gag, it doesn't bode well for the humor in the movie.    Once Paul undergoes the transformation and is dropped into his new world, the movie grinds to a halt.    It takes on Paul's malaise and kind of muddles through scene after scene with no apparent energy.    Downsizing treks into "what's the meaning of it all" waters when Paul's partying neighbor Dusan (Waltz) befriends him and then Paul falls for Dusan's cleaning lady, Ngoc (Chau), who made headlines recently for defecting from Vietnam in a small box.   She had her lower leg amputated and Paul uses his occupational therapy background to help her out.    Despite not having an ounce of chemistry, they fall in love and soon Dusan, Paul, and Ngoc travel to Norway, where downsizing was first discovered by a scientist.    It seems there is grim news on the horizon for the human race; something to do with methane gas released from melting Antarctic ice caps which will speed up the timetable for humankind's doom.

Paul is then left with a decision: Stay with his friends or follow a group of other tiny people down a tunnel to live underground and allow humans to survive another catastrophe.    Since the movie up until this point has been stupor-inducing boring, we don't much care what happens to Paul.   Or anyone else.   Chau and Waltz try to bring some earnest energy to the film, but to no avail.    They surely steal the movie from Damon, who surprisingly doesn't make much of an impact.    Ditto for the movie, which starts out with an intriguing concept and then just travels through ever-increasing stages of dullness.   Alexander Payne has made some terrific satires and human comedies over the years, including Election (1999), Sideways (2004), and Nebraska (2013).    Downsizing is not among those, and is a step down from Payne's usual quality.