Downsizing - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Downsizing

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I was really intrigued by Writer/Director Alexander’s Payne’s Downsizing strictly due to the fact that he made the absolutely wonderful film, Nebraska. The trailers were a bit underwhelming, but I was more than willing to give it a chance due to the talent involved, and Payne’s meticulous use of character development in his films. Sadly the film falls very much in line with the way the trailers came across. It’s a decent movie with decent direction and decent acting, but isn’t wildly engaging despite the more dramatic elements of the movie.

The idea of mankind ending themselves with their own foibles is nothing new in storytelling. In this instance, it’s the classic tale of overpopulation and over indulgence. It’s been surmised (in the movie) that we only have a few hundred years left to live before we overpopulate the earth, and several Nordic scientists have come up with a solution. We shrink the human down to 5 inches tall, and thus conserve space and energy! Simple right? The technology is finally viable, and world leaders unleash a 200 year plan to convert people down to a fraction of their size so as to save the human race. The idea is sound. If you’re a fraction of the size, you use up a fraction of the resources and put our a fraction of the waste. Thus slowing down (or evading completely) the inevitable destination of mankind. Not only that, the little people that had been converted would use so little resources that if they agreed to go live in the “mini” colonies that were set up, their finances would cover their living expenses at a rate of 100:1. Effectively making a $150,000 nest egg into $12,000,000 (or so the logic goes).

Enter Paul Safranek (Matt Damon), a rather unsatisfied occupational therapist who has watched his life go nowhere. His dreams of being a surgeon were sidelined by the health of a failing mother, and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) is pushing them to move into something bigger and better, knowing full well that their limited finances can’t sustain her desires. Well, with $152,000 in equity, the two have the chance of a new life in Leisure land (the aptly named colony for “little people”) where their $152,000 is equivalent to over $12,000,000. Well, the time comes, the time goes, and Paul and Audrey go in to get shrunk. Only thing is, Audrey ditches at the last moment, leaving Paul 5 inches tall and Audrey her normal size. As the divorce proceedings strip Paul of his $152,000 worth of equity, he is left to live among the rich and famous in Leisure Land, while having to work a crummy call center job to make ends meet. Effectively, he’s exactly the same as he was in the big world, just without a wife, and without many friends (except his crazy upstairs neighbor Dusan ….who is played by the ever fantastic Christoph Waltz).

Downsizing really tries to be something spectacular. Paul is stuck in this new world of excitement and adventure, but he has brought himself with him, which sort of hinders his ability to be the rich man of leisure that he had hoped when he came up with the idea to shrink himself. Trying to start over he looks for something MORE than himself, and can’t find it anywhere. Not in dating, not in parties with Dusan, not in work. That is until he meets Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), a Vietnamese dissident who is living down in Leisure Land after getting her leg blown off in a protest. After accidentally messing up her prosthetic leg, Paul is indebted to her and enters into the poor woman’s life and is opened up to a whole nother way of living than he had ever experienced.

Unfortunately, the movie really meanders and moves along at such a lackadaisical pace that the viewer begins to get a little bored. Alexander Payne tries so very hard to make this a contemplative drama, but the movie is really not that deep. Which is to the detriment of the film as the entire premise is one to make you think on what makes you happy. Is it about wealth? Is it about glamour? Or is it about something more. The script touches on some of these subjects, but doesn’t spend enough time with each idea before it skips on to the next one. The romance that sparks between paul and Ngoc comes out of left field, and just isn’t set up enough to be fully believable. The same goes for Paul’s decision to go underground (you’ll have to watch to find out what I mean there) or stay with Ngoc also is just too rushed, pushing so much into the third act after we’ve set up very little in the middle act (the most engaging part of the film is still the opening act when we discover just what shrinking technology will do with the world). I wanted to like it more than I did, but Payne’s usual attention to personal details is just lacking when it shouldn’t be.




Rating:

Rated R for language including sexual references, some graphic nudity and drug use




Video:

Downsizing was shot using Arri Alexa digital cameras and given the odd reslutioned 3.4K master for the home video release. The Blu-ray is nothing that will blow your socks off, but it IS a very competent encode that ticks off ever check box in the quality department, giving us a superb looking digital image. Fine details are excellent in the outside world, with bright white levels and strong skin tones. The crisp lines of the medical center where Paul and Audrey go to get shrunk are amazingly detailed, and the colors are warm and inviting. Black levels are deep and inky, with no signs of banding or crush to be seen, but there are some mild instances where the blacks get a little washed out due to the brownish color grading in certain locals. It’s a very impressive looking encode, and while it doesn’t stand out as something unique and beautiful, it certainly is a very technically proficient video experience.







Audio:

Paramount employs the same 7.1 DTS-HD MA track in both the 4K UHD disc as well as the Blu-ray, so this portion of the review will also be the same across both formats. The 7.1 track is not going to be an explosive high energy action track, but it is quite adept at handling the different locals and their impressive use of surrounds. The opening roar of applause is thunderous and intense, but then settles into a quite and front heavy track that spends more time with dialog than not. However, once Paul gets to Leisure land, things get a bit more intense, with a rocking club like party, and the hubbub and murmur of the slums when it’s time to go help Gladis. LFE is tight and clean, but never really boisterous or overly enthusiastic. Dialog is well placed in the center of the room, and balanced evenly with the track. A perfect example of a completely satisfactory audio experience in all respects.









Extras:

• Featurettes:
- Working with Alexander
- The cast
- A visual journey
- A matter of perspective
- That smile
- A global concern

Final Score: ​

Downsizing tries to be a little bit of everything, but ends up only slightly resembling what its trying to be. It’s not that dark, it’s not that emotionally resonate, and it’s not really that funny either, while it tries to be all three. I enjoyed the premise of the movie, but things became so fantastical in the technology department, and failed to really pull you into the emotional distress of Paul and his life. Really, for a 2 hour and 15 minute film, it boils down to “you can’t buy happiness”. End of story. The 4K UHD disc from Paramount is a moderate upgrade over the excellent Blu-ray in the video department, but uses the exact same extras and audio track, so the decision to choose this over the Blu-ray will depend solely on how much you want that extra bit of video quality. It may not be the greatest story of all time, but Downsizing works as a solid rental in my opinion.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Matt Damon, Chrstoph Waltz, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis
Directed by: Alexander Payne
Written by: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 7.1, French (Canadian), Portuguese, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R
Runtime: 135 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: March 20th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Decent Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check it out once on amazon prime/netflix. Looked promising from the trailer but rental it is.