Downsizing (2017)

Often I find writer/director Alexander Payne's films uninspiring.
Sideways, The Descendants, About Schmidt, they are all fine but hold little interest for me. Rarely does Payne bridge the gap between what is interesting for his specific demographic and what is interesting for anyone else. He rarely finds a way to make the woes of unsatisfied privileged late middle aged white men mean as much to the rest of us as they do to those unsatisfied privileged late middle aged white men.

Now he has tackled a "high concept" story. These kinds of movies can go one of two ways. They can tell an interesting story which, through its narrative, explores themes and wrestles with important ideas. Or they can focus so much on the concept, the conceit, that their story is never quite developed enough to be compelling on its own, as a story. So instead of being a told a fascinating tale with a "moral" that we can ruminate on, we are instead lectured to while having to put up with a rather dull story. Unfortunately Downsizing was the latter.

I appreciate what Payne is getting at here. The issues dealt with here are important and the questions it asks are fascinating. But the story of Paul Safranek, Matt Damon's suburbanly bland main character is just not compelling in anyway. The story walks through all the predictable motions; he gets all despondent when things don't go his way, he finds out others (who have been there all along) have it harder, he is inspired to do something to help the less fortunate and become a white savior. Yada yada yada. It's just not a narrative that I can find very compelling.

Payne has made a film which raises interesting issues, but I'm not sure his level of analysis gets to the point where this becomes interesting. He scratches the surface and offers solutions which seem a bit pat, a bit overly simplistic. It's almost like poverty tourism in a way. Anyway, he hasn't managed to make an interesting film or tell a compelling story. It takes more than just an interesting idea to make a good movie. The execution is important too. I was bored enough by the film I couldn't get myself to spend time thinking much about the issues the film raised. 

Downsizing
Starring: Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudakis
Director: Alexander Payne
Writers: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor