What would occur if human beings developed the know-how to shrink themselves all the way down to a fraction of their unique measurement? In Alexander Payne’s weird sci-fi comedy Downsizing, scientist Jorgen Asbjornsen (Rolf Lassgård) discovers “cellular miniaturization,” which permits regular-size people to be shrunk down to 5 inches. This means, they will go dwell in communities particularly constructed for the miniaturized, the place they might be capable to afford houses and life past their wildest goals—all the things prices much less once you “get small,” which is a good way to get out of debt.

The movie’s science additionally postulates that “getting small” helps to drastically cut back humanity’s carbon footprint, since small individuals use fewer sources and create much less waste. Sounds like a win-win-win scenario: Participants swap monetary woes for a luxe way of life, assist save the planet, and get an enormous tax break from the federal government on high of that…so long as they’re okay with the entire “irreversible, potentially dangerous, elective medical procedure” factor.

Enter Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), an occupational therapist tormented by ennui and debt who can’t afford to offer his spouse Audrey (Kristen Wiig) the life that she deserves. After a perfunctory quantity of analysis and a go to to ritzy Leisuretown, a “small” neighborhood situated in a mall-type construction, Safranek decides that downsizing is the way in which to go. Although Audrey is clearly hesitant, the couple determine to undergo with the method and conform to liquidate their belongings and eschew their lives as full-size individuals. Things take a flip for the devastating when Safranek awakens after his process and finds that Audrey backed out on the final minute, leaving him completely alone and directionless in a brand new place. Lucky for him, his upstairs neighbor is Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz), an extroverted Eastern European get together boy; Mirkovic, in flip, introduces him to Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), a Vietnamese refugee and amputee whose presence proves integral to Safranek’s development as an individual.

The sci-fi concepts within the movie are fascinating, as is the transient exploration of the socioeconomic and environmental implications of a world the place “getting small” is an possibility. However, the film tries desperately to reconcile these grand-scale ideas with the shaky, satirical parable it desires to inform, and it finally fails. The characters are, for probably the most half, one-dimensional, and the connections between them really feel compelled; Mirkovic, for instance, is totally shallow and contributes little to the precise story—he’s simply there to offer Christoph Waltz an opportunity to affix the forged. Tran is by far probably the most attention-grabbing and well-developed character within the movie, and whereas it’s refreshing to see a non-white lady with a incapacity as a love curiosity, her relationship with Safranek is awkward and their chemistry is woefully missing.

The movie’s tone modifications so ceaselessly that the humor feels disingenuous and the moments of seriousness are pedantic and eye-roll inducing. Plus, there are a handful of gaping plot holes and incongruities throughout the film’s backstory that may’t even be excused by the suspension of disbelief afforded by a sci-fi flick. The results are cool at instances, notably throughout nature scenes (together with one wherein a number of shrunken people take a ship journey down a Norwegian fjord), however they aren’t cool sufficient to make up for the shortcomings of the movie. Overall, this appears like an unfinished undertaking with some fascinating concepts that have been by no means actually fleshed out.