Downsizing
- 2017
- Tous publics
- 2h 15min
Une satire sociale dans laquelle un homme se rend compte que sa vie serait meilleure s'il mesurait 12 cm, lui permettant de vivre dans la richesse et la splendeur.Une satire sociale dans laquelle un homme se rend compte que sa vie serait meilleure s'il mesurait 12 cm, lui permettant de vivre dans la richesse et la splendeur.Une satire sociale dans laquelle un homme se rend compte que sa vie serait meilleure s'il mesurait 12 cm, lui permettant de vivre dans la richesse et la splendeur.
- Réalisation
- Scénario
- Casting principal
- Récompenses
- 1 victoire et 16 nominations au total
- Good Friend Tim
- (as Timothy Edmund Driscoll)
- Buddy Kevin
- (as Kevin Patrick Kunkel)
Avis à la une
At first, the concept was intriguing and compelling. Solve some of the worlds problems with overpopulation and resource straining by allowing people to be "downsized" to approximately 5 inches, or roughly the same size as an action hero doll. There is even a "Truman" style all-encompassing village for them all to live in luxury in downsized mansions that would fit onto a real life dining table.
The leads, Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig, are always bankable for bringing interesting characters to life, and the whole downsizing process for Matt Damon is breathtaking. That all happens in roughly the first half of the movie, but things go downhill fast after Christoph Waltz enters the picture as Matt Damon's obnoxious upstairs neighbor.
First off, earlier scenes show the Matt Damon character, "Paul" taking up residence in one of the Lilliputian mansions with his own yard around it. However, he later appears to live in some type of highrise with elevators without any explanation of why he moved (or maybe I missed it).
By the time the Paul character helps an Asian refugee and ends up visiting the "slum" of the small people neighborhoods to help a disadvantaged small person, I found myself clicking on the screen to see how much of the movie was left. Forty-five minutes? Ugh.
So chalk it up to bad execution or bad scriptwriting, but to me there's little wonder why the movie failed massively at the box office, reaping only a fraction of its production costs, bloated because of the breathtaking special effects from the first half. Eventually, I may see the final 45 minutes since Prime allows you to pick up where you left off, but I certainly won't go out of my way to do it!
Director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska) has a knack for character and the human condition. This movie, easily his biggest budgeted effort due to the special effects involved, loses a little of that thanks to the film's ambitions and the overreaching scope of the story. Payne seems to making some points about the lengths people will go to in hopes of achieving the upper class dream of many Americans, with the big house and country club aesthetics. Payne also spends time on the danger of climate change, and the last section of the film takes this to apocalyptic levels. Whether he's exaggerating for effect, comic or otherwise, he doesn't make clear, but it's also possible that he's being sincere in his fears. Damon serves his purpose well, as he's called on mainly to be a blank slate, a rather empty man looking for meaning in the world.
The stand-out performances are from Christopher Waltz as Damon's obnoxious neighbor, and especially Hong Chau as a one-legged Vietnamese former political dissident turned janitorial worker. She's phenomenal, and should have nabbed a supporting Oscar nomination. The movie was a flop with both critics and the box office, but I liked it, and continue to look forward to Payne's work.
Paul (Matt Damon), an occupational therapist who at best is just a nice guy, and his ambitious wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), decide to have a richer life by downsizing, but contrary to our conventional use of that term. To shrink means to have a bigger miniature mansion, the kind he couldn't afford in a regular size that his shrinking paycheck keeps him from. Of course, in his decision to help out the planet, he is really helping to mitigate his envy of his richer friends in their McMansions.
Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor deftly move the Twilight-Zone story into a melodrama that stresses the humanity of a man who forsakes family and friends for a seemingly higher purpose such as saving the environment. However, it still comes back to greed.
At least until Paul experiences caring for those less fortunate than he, for those shrunk but still with relatively nothing, viz., the poor, the immigrant, and the sick to name a few disadvantaged souls living in a ghetto-tenement world far from the eyes of the advantaged. Once Paul witnesses real poverty he can never turn back to his truly shrunken life of excess and worthlessness.
Where Payne veers from the staples of his drama is bringing in an apocalyptic climate change, a danger not even appearing earlier. More than that misplaced motif is that he has nicely set up already the humanity that will save Paul, who must choose between survival and being together for however long with the ones he truly loves.
Downsizing is rare, a comedy in sci-fi mode with a toolbox of social concerns. It's a child of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with a Twilight Zone spirit, and it's a pleasant holiday diversion.
Le saviez-vous
- AnecdotesWhen Matt Damon's character, Paul, pulls up to his new downsized home, his driver says; 'welcome to the good life". Paul makes a face in response. "The good life" is the state motto of Nebraska, the home he had just left.
- GaffesWhile the Norwegian colony might not have needed a dome to protect them from mosquitoes and birds, other full-size animals would be able to get in. Also, full-size raindrops would be deadly to downsized people. More even if someone said they did not have insects because to close to the sea, we saw a dragonfly when they entered the village and also butterflies later (big ones !). And what about the waves? They live just by the water, any mild waves would shattered the pier. And what about snow that would cover them in minutes.
- Citations
Ngoc Lan Tran: Other night on boat, what kind of fuck you give me?
Paul Safranek: What?
Ngoc Lan Tran: What kind of fuck you give me?
Paul Safranek: What kind? I don't...
Ngoc Lan Tran: American people, eight kind of fuck. Love fuck, hate fuck, sex-only fuck, break-up fuck, make-up fuck, drunk fuck, buddy fuck, pity fuck.
- Crédits fousThe first half of the end credits feature the camera zooming out from the chest outward of Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing Vitruvian Man.
- Versions alternativesThere is a special version (probably edited for nudity and language) that can be found on television.
- ConnexionsFeatured in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Matt Damon/Rahm Emanuel/Juanes (2017)
- Bandes originalesSuite No. 2 in B Minor for Flute - Badinerie
Written by Johann Sebastian Bach
Courtesy of Extreme Music
Meilleurs choix
- How long is Downsizing?Alimenté par Alexa
Détails
- Date de sortie
- Pays d’origine
- Sites officiels
- Langues
- Aussi connu sous le nom de
- Pequeña gran vida
- Lieux de tournage
- Sociétés de production
- Voir plus de crédits d'entreprise sur IMDbPro
Box-office
- Budget
- 68 000 000 $US (estimé)
- Montant brut aux États-Unis et au Canada
- 24 449 754 $US
- Week-end de sortie aux États-Unis et au Canada
- 4 954 287 $US
- 24 déc. 2017
- Montant brut mondial
- 55 003 890 $US
- Durée2 heures 15 minutes
- Couleur
- Mixage
- Rapport de forme
- 2.39 : 1