Review: Downsizing Is Small Idea With Some Big Goals
- Dec 27, 2017
- 1 min read
Roald Dahl wrote whimsy with an undercurrent darker than the darkest night. Downsizing isn't much different.
Humanities biggest problem is over-population. The more of us there are, the worse the problem becomes. The solution is simple, make everyone small. This is the premise of Downsizing, a film in which Matt Damon is shrunk to 5 inches tall and must navigate life in a larger, albeit smaller, world.
Downsizing is at once both the strangest and most interesting film of the year. Pitched as some sort of feel good film about saving the world, which it kind of is, there is a dark side to it, one that is never explicitly shown, nor overly explored, but once it's there, it sticks around. Between Matt Damon marveling at being small or Christoph Waltz stealing the show from his first appearance, the idea of mass extinction, societal collapse and poverty all peak through, breaking the presented idea of a perfect small world. And it's great.
While the first third or so of the film is a little rushed, often jumping weeks, years or even decades ahead but once it hit its stride, it moves along smoothly. And hey, a film about saving humanity from mass extinction that's genuinely funny, almost on the same level as Thor Ragnarok, that's good in my books.
Downsizing may not be my favourite movie of the year, but it's very good all the same. While maybe not cinema worthy, though it certainly has some nice visuals, there's no reason not to check this out.
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