Lisa S

To me, Alexander Payne's movie, "Downsizing" (2017), was in two distinct parts of style and tone - pre- shrinkage and post- shrinkage, as if they were two separate movies pieced together for the convenience of plot line. The plot convention of having one character in a marriage shrink while the other spouse remained large was predictable. So was the idea that in order to serve a luxury village of the shrinking middle class, poorer worker bees would also need to be minimized, sometimes against their will. Modern movies love to have completely unlovable characters; these are characters who are rude and mean; someone the audience would rather get away from than embrace. This was the Vietnamese dissident. We were supposed to care about her because she feeds and cares for her other poor worker bees, but that was a little too late after hearing her call Matt Damon's character "stupid" and "crazy" and "boring" when he was genuinely trying to help her. What would make him fall in love with someone so verbally abusive? The movie was okay. Having said that, when I think of Payne’s other movies like “Election” (1999), “About Schmidt” (2002), “Sideways” (2004), “The Descendants” (2011) and "Nebraska" (2012), the word “okay” does not come to mind, as they rose to the level of more exemplary adjectives. I don't think “Downsizing” had as much of a clear and original message as Alexander Payne would like to believe. The question I still ask is what truly would have made Matt Damon's character want to shrink? Was it too get away from his wife, who was pushing him to bigger and more expensive possessions? He could have divorced her. It is this flaw that opaquely colored the whole movie for me.