Downsizing Preview

The world has reached a breaking point with over-population.  A scientist has figured out a way to not only stop the human race from completely depleting the planet of all its resources, but also to provide a better and more luxurious lifestyle to anyone who chooses to participate in his program of Downsizing.  His patients are shrunk to a height of 5 inches and live in an experimental community built just for them.

Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is a physical therapist living in Omaha with his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig).  Like many couples today, they are struggling financially to make ends meet.  At a high school reunion, Paul and Audrey talk to Dave Johnson (Jason Sudeikis) and his wife Carol (Maribeth Monroe) who have already undergone the irreversible process.

And that's really all we know about the movie from the preview.  It's an original idea, sort of.  Dennis Quaid was shrunken in 1987 in a movie called Innerspace.  Two years later, Rick Moranis accidentally shrunk his kids in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  It goes all the way back to 1957 with the film, The Incredible Shrinking Man.  But Downsizing certainly looks like a new and different take on the idea of shrinking.  The only other thing we really have to go on is that the movie is rated R, and there is absolutely nothing in the preview that even hints as to why that would be.  At one point, there is a bottle of Absolut Vodka shown for the Downsized to drink from, and to them it's about the size of a water tower.  But that wouldn't explain the harsh rating.  So that makes me skeptical.  

The people responsible for putting together previews really did their job well.  I have no idea what this movie is about, except the basic premise, but I am very excited to see what it's all about.  It's a little difficult to give an initial rating with so little to go on, so I'm giving Downsizing a very cautious and curious 3.5 Star Rating.  It looks like it will be worth the price of admission in the theatre, something I'd watch again, and might even have a chance of making it to my home collection.  So, am I right?  We shall see.