Alexander Payne has made writing and directing satire and social commentary his stock in trade with great success (Sideways, Nebraska, The Descendants). This time, however, his big ambition comes up short, just like his characters.
This sci-fi drama/comedy takes us into the near future when science unlocks the key to miniaturizing not only animals, but humans. Payne’s talents are in full bloom in the opening chapters of the film as he shows us the possibilities what life would become for little people. Marketed as the way to save the planet by vastly reducing the resources needed to sustain a tiny population, the real reason most people opt in is to live the high life consuming more but paying less for as much luxury or more on a tiny scale. When housing is the size of a doll house, why not go for a mansion!
That’s the lure for Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig). They’re struggling to maintain a middle class existence, so the big shrink, so they think, will solve their money woes and land them on Easy Street. These are the best scenes in the movie, as Paul and Audrey prepare to say good bye to their lives and embark on the new adventure. The process of being shrunk is very detailed and explicit, down to removing hair (including eyebrows) and fillings that would be too big after the process.
When Audrey gets cold feet and backs out after Paul has irreversibly shrunk, he’s on his own in his new life. He’s alone in this mansion with all the amenities. All of a sudden he’s in an apartment. Time has passed but we don’t know how he got there. He’s got a noisy neighbor named Dusan who is a wild a and crazy guy played with abandon by Christolph Waltz. He had way too much fun playing this party animal character who shows Paul how to navigate his new world and have a good time doing it. Dusan is the most fun character who says, “The world needs an asshole.” Damon is depressed and depressing to watch most of the film.
Paul soon encounters house cleaner Hong Chau as Ngoc Lan Tran, a Vietnamese dissident who was shrunk against her will and escaped from a shipping container. She was inside a TV box. Tran has a prosthetic leg which allows Paul to use his training as a Physical Therapist. While attempting to repair her foot, he wrecks her leg. Paul feels guilty about it so he tries to help her. Chau is cute but her accent is so overdone, it’s almost offensive and sounds cartoonish, maybe verging on racist. She teaches Paul there is life worth living for, even as a little person. But their love scene is not appealing at all. Matt Damon can do better.
They make a pilgrimage to the original Norwegian colony of tiny people with the founder and his wife. It is sappy and weird, but the cinematography of the fiords is magnificent. Too bad the movie doesn’t develop well from there. Payne veers off in too many directions, leaving the humor and satire behind to take on issues like the refugee crisis and climate change.
There is such a void when it comes to emotion in this film and it bounces around without enough explanation. The message to be kind to people, wealthy or not, comes through but totally without the heart tugs. When Paul brings a take out chicken dinner to a destitute man, he looks back to see the man eating it while watching TV with slight nod for the charity. There is no emotion there whatsoever on either part. It just doesn’t make sense. Alexander Payne may have started this project with big ambitions, but, unfortunately this film caused us to downsize our expectations.
Paramount 135 Minutes R
