Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.
Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in Omaha in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures.
"The movie resembles an episode of "The Twilight Zone" directed by Preston Sturges. An outlandish, pointedly allegorical conceit is inhabited not by symbolic figures but by terrestrial oddballs."
New York Times
"With deeply felt performances from Matt Damon and Hong Chau and startling special effects in miniature, Alexander Payne's sci-fi satire brims over with the pleasures of the unexpected."
Rolling Stone
"The movie is a surprise, the good kind, an instance of a filmmaker zigging just when you're expecting him to zag."
Time Magazine