Within a few minutes of starting to watch director/co-writer Alexander Payne’s comedy/drama, Downsizing, the thought ‘Oh, no… this  isn’t going to be ridiculous, is it?’ crossed my mind.

Starring Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau and Jason Sudeikis, Downsizing is a social satire about a man who decides he’d have a much better life if he were to shrink himself.

I’m happy to say that I had fun watching Downsizing, even though the film didn’t really get properly exciting for me until it began to deliver on its ‘part-comedy’ categorisation, something that finally happens approximately thirty-nine minutes in. Everything before that point is ‘kind of engaging,’ but too slow for my tastes.

I laughed a pleasing amount in the film and many of the wonderfully funny scenes featured Damon’s clueless Paul Safranek character. I found Paul particularly amusing because he seems to suffer from a kind of ‘blindness’ that I haven’t seen played/written quite as well as it is in this movie for a while. I laughed mostly at him and his apparent cluelessness in several situations.

Besides the memorable comedy performances, I enjoyed the sci-fi aspect of the story and how, knowing the challenges of modern life as well as I think I do, I can accept that a person might actually decide that shrinkage was a good idea.

As a non-action movie, I admit that there were moments nearer the beginning where I couldn’t help but half expect Damon’s character to suddenly burst into action-movie-star mode and start running and punching. That didn’t happen, of course, but I’m certainly not disappointed either. especially as Waltz and Chau were also responsible for some of the funny moments.

I say, give Downsizing a chance. You may find it as laughter-inducing (in parts) as I did.

Happy Film Loving,

G