REVIEW: Downsizing

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Downsizing has an interesting what-if gimmick, but it is a bland exploration of the concept, and I grew tired of it and these characters over the course of its whopping 130 minute run-time. Its marketing gives it a different vibe than its pretentious intentions. The beautiful and talented Hong Chau adds some required levity, but the film gets lodged between themes and genres, instead of landing on them as it hops from chapter to chapter, place to place, and so on. It is just quite uneven, and quite a tedious watch outside of a few scenes. It also has the guise of a parable but it's so washy and bloated by morality and uncertainty that I gave up trying to decipher the meaning or if there even was one. This is a disappointing film by Payne, a filmmaker who has such a rich filmography in The Descendants, About Schmidt, Sideways, and last year's most underrated film, Wilson. He should definitely stick to straight up comedy-dramas in the future, and leave the science-fiction in more capable hands.

C

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