Downsizing

“Downsizing” was directed by Alexander Payne who, with Jim Taylor, wrote the story and screenplay. The film stars Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Kristen Wiig and Hong Chau. I went to this film expecting to see an elaboration of a very tempting trailer but, unfortunately, the best part of the film was, in fact, all in the trailer itself. What starts out with a very intriguing concept, i.e. shrinking human beings to a height of 5 inches with a proportionate environment around them, loses itself in the first 30 minutes and travels in a number of different directions, most of which involve the writer’s political statements about climate change and the harm humans are doing to the planet. Also, to add another negative to the film is the role played by Thailand actress Hong Chau and what has to be the worst attempt ever made at imitating a Vietnamese émigré. Simply stated, she ruins each scene in which she appears with this ‘chalk on a blackboard” dialogue. Couple all of this with plot changes and ideas that make no sense and you have a disappointing and uncomfortable 135 minutes. I give the film 2 stars because of. what it started out to be, and could have been, but unfortunately went downhill in mid reel. In summary, all of Mr. Payne’s efforts as director and co-writer of this film came up short (pun intended).