Downsizing

Downsizing is set in a near future where overpopulation and the depletion of natural resources have pushed the planet to its limits. Norwegian scientists develop a procedure that shrinks human beings to roughly twelve centimetres tall, and the idea behind it is simple: a much smaller person consumes far less food, water, air and space, and produces less waste. The technology also promises something else. In a miniature community, the savings of an ordinary lifetime stretch much further, so shrinking becomes a way for middle-class people to afford a life of comfort they could never reach at normal size.

Paul Safranek, an occupational therapist from Omaha, and his wife Audrey are struggling to get by. They decide to undergo the procedure and move to a small-scale settlement, trading their cramped, stressful existence for a more prosperous one. When Paul has gone through with it and the anaesthetic wears off, the situation is not what he expected, and his life takes a direction quite different from the one the couple had planned. Matt Damon plays Paul, with Kristen Wiig as Audrey, Christoph Waltz as Dusan Mirkovic, Hong Chau as Ngoc Lan Tran and Rolf Lassgård as Dr. Jorgen Asbjørnsen.

Alexander Payne directed and co-wrote the film with Jim Taylor, his long-standing writing partner; it followed Nebraska and Paris Je T'aime in his filmography and came before The Holdovers. Made for a budget reported at around 68 million dollars, it had returned about 55 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.8 out of 10 from roughly 137,000 votes, on TMDB 5.4 from over 4,000, while a critics' rating of 5.7 from about 300 reviews sits close to the audience scores.