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****
Dir: Alexander Payne (15 135 mins)
Getting small has never had such a giant impact. Writer/director Alexander Payne goes very high-concept after a series of excellent dramas – Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants, and Nebraska – with this fable about America and masculinity in microcosm. We follow put-upon occupational therapist Paul (Matt Damon), trapped in a job he is failing at with no money and living in the house in which he was born; he craves adventure, a change. Revolutionary Norwegian technology offers him a chance to be shrunk down to five inches. Being smaller he eats and consumes less, becoming a millionaire in the tiny world of Leisure Land. Unfortunately, his partner Audrey (Kristen Wiig) does not want to join him in his miniature world and big world problems soon encroach on the Lilliputian community. Turns out even being small will not allow you to escape the world’s big problems. Part comedy, part dystopian sci-fi and part moving human drama, Downsizing is a fantastic examination of America. Christoph Waltz charms as Damon’s playboy neighbour, Hong Chau becomes Damon’s smaller partner and Damon is as good as ever, ably handling a man whose problems grow bigger despite his small stature. An environmental treatise as well as a satire and pure entertainment, Downsizing is a multilayered triumph.
Opens January 19