It’s the unanticipated nuisances of Paul’s diminished status that draw the attention here. Payne sensibly avoids hostile spiders, deluges of raindrops and similar predicaments that harassed “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” The story doesn’t pivot into science fiction once Paul is shrunken. Watching the nurses use spatulas to pick up unconscious little patients after the shrinking process is funny because it’s weird. Like they say, it’s funny because it’s true. Medical attendants painstakingly go through his checklist just as if he were having a hernia repaired, which leads to a solid colon hydrotherapy gag. There’s an ingenious step-by-step logic as we watch Paul’s pre-op preparation. Payne, who has given us deeply grounded comedies such as “Nebraska,” “Sideways,” and “Election,” directly tackles those pesky “could this really work” doubts in your head.

“Downsizing” is set in everyday Omaha and Leisureland’s brave new (little) world, and it never stumbles as it moves between the two. Why not jump down the rabbit hole? What could possibly go wrong? Paul, a nice guy whose beer buddies offer little of value, might as well be adrift with the living dead.įriends who have already signed on to the reducing program visit in 1/10 scale and extol New Mexico’s Disney-esque little Leisureland like evangelists. Audrey is bored, living in a house beneath her aspirations.

Nebbishy occupational therapist Paul (Matt Damon, every man’s everyman) and his wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), are intrigued by the pitch. Smaller humans leave smaller carbon footprints in their path, consume far less and can live like royalty in dollhouse-sized mansions that they could never afford at human scale.Ī marketing push tells everyday people that this new, hyper-effective weight loss program is just what they need. It’s a win-win situation as the scientists see it. With a few medical procedures, they can reduce a human adult to a homunculus just 5 inches tall. Set in a slightly alternative universe, Payne’s story paints a near future when Norwegian researchers have discovered the golden fleece of bioengineering.

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