Genre: There's a lot going on in this film and despite the general census as a Sci-fi/drama I'd disagree and say it doesn't really conform to any category.
Related Titles: Suburbicon, Welcome to Me, Sideways
By Leanne Harragan
Overpopulation is the world's leafing problem until scientists discover the solution: shrinking people. Paul (Damon) and wife Audrey (Wiig) uproot their burdensome lives to get small and move to a new emerging community. A choice that changes their lives forever.
A film that is sadly marketed completely wrong, the trailer looks hilarious whereas the film fell a little short on actually funny moments. This is especially a shame when casting someone like Kristen Wiig who I personally find incredibly funny. I also think that her role in the film is slightly overplayed in the trailer as her time on screen is actually rather minimal.
Aside from the mis-marketed trailer, there are a few other issues I have with this film. While it has a solid idea behind it, along the way the it almost loses the plot and goes off on a few wild tangents. With an idea that is so fresh and with so much potential it's such a shame that there is too much going on, that in the end leads to not enough to flesh out a real film.
The script is lacking a little bit at times and I felt that while Hong Chau performance as 'Ngoc Lan Tram' was scene-stealing was a little bit too stereotyped. I'm also not the biggest fan of Matt Damon so at times found his performance a little boring but as a whole his acting was strong; as was co-star Christop Waltz.
One thing I really enjoyed in this film was the score, Rolfe Kent has done a wonderful job scoring this film. As have the team who worked on making it look the way it did, the visuals were very enjoyable and seeing the difference between normal people and little people was very cool.
Overall I can't help but feel that this film was a let-down for me, the trailer had me expecting something else entirely and while it's not the worst film I've seen it's definitely not one of my favourites.
Rating: 7/10
By Rebecca Mannick
Downsizing is definitely very different to what I expected and also different to what the trailer gives off. Rather than a light-hearted comedy, its a journey of self-discovery of main character Paul Safranek (Matt Damon). It shows you (the long way) how Paul chooses to drastically change his life in hopes of finding himself, a purpose and a better life. Paul is the definition of 'nice guy', but never really discovered his full potential. When at a college reunion, they see the first 'small' people who also happen to be friends of the Safranek's. They convince Paul to downsize due to huge financial benefits.
Once Paul downsizes, the film really goes off into different tangents that I didn't see coming. Not in a good or bad way, it was just very unexpected. Something that I didn't predict was Paul meeting Ngoc Lan Tram, who was also the main source of comedy of the film. She also plays a very important role in Paul's journey, and it is nice to see it play out.
It was so interesting how the writers of this film created this 'small' world but also created a class system within it. Like everything in this world, humans abuse systems and other people. This was no exception in the downsized world. Even though this is a farfetched way in which to deal with overpopulation on earth, it still is a foreshadowing into the future and we will have to find a way to live while exhausting all of earths natural resources. Whether that is downsizing or relocating to Mars, whatever it is, humanity will still find a way of exploiting the vulnerable or the poor.
I feel like some portions of the film were really dragged out unnecessarily, especially the process in the actual downsizing. They almost go into too much detail which does get quite boring quite quickly. If they had shortened (excuse the pun) the film and made the plot a bit more concise this probably would have scored an extra .5 in my rating. But overall I did enjoy this movie, it probably would have been best if I didn't watch the trailer beforehand. I know most people do watch the trailer to get an idea of what they are about to see but I would advise against it for this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment