Having literally just walked out of a screening of Alexander Payne's Downsizing a couple of hours ago, the timing of this new trailer is spot-on. Payne's latest has him dabbling in the realm of sci-fi, imagining an overpopulated world where people can volunteer to be shrunk down, in an effort to save space and resources. It's a cool concept and Payne, along with his leads Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, and Hong Chau, embrace it fully. Whether it winds up an Oscar contender remains to be seen since the reception has been mixed thus far.
Here's the synopsis: Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.
I can't give away my opinion of the movie yet, but what I can say is that the trailers don't tell you just how many big ideas Payne gets out of this premise. It goes places that you don't go in expecting, and then it goes another step further. Make of that what you will.
Downsizing opens December 22nd.
