It tells the story of Paul Safranek, who decides to undergo a recently invented procedure to shrink his body so he can start a new life in an experimental community, which he ends up doing alone when his wife backs out at the last minute; his journey takes an unexpected turn after he befriends an impoverished activist.
[4] Nevertheless, it was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2017,[5] while Chau earned a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 75th Golden Globe Awards.
[6][7] Searching for a way to address overpopulation and global warming, Norwegian scientist Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen develops "downsizing", an irreversible process that shrinks organic material.
He becomes part of the first group of human test subjects and is encouraged that the process reduces people to a height of approximately 5 inches (13 cm), drastically decreasing their consumption and waste.
Because of his reduced size Paul has no choice but to take up solitary occupancy of a sprawling and luxurious mansion, previously selected by the couple using their greatly enhanced capital.
Unable to afford the mansion Audrey chose, he relocates to an apartment and takes a job as a customer service representative at Lands' End.
The next morning, Paul recognizes one of Dusan's house cleaners as Ngoc Lan Tran, a Vietnamese political activist who was jailed and downsized against her will, escaped in a television box, barely survived being shipped to the United States, and was brought to Leisureland a year ago to have her leg amputated.
Wanting to assist Ngoc Lan with her prosthetic leg, Paul goes to her apartment in the slums just outside the walls of Leisureland where the service workers of the community live.
At the colony, the travelers discover that, the next day, Dr. Asbjørnsen is enacting a contingency plan: he and the other colonists are going to enter a large underground vault, and their descendants will emerge when the surface environment stabilizes in about eight thousand years.
Dusan and Joris are skeptical of the cult-like plan and say the extinction will not happen for hundreds of years, while Paul is excited to enter the vault and help with this effort to ensure the future of mankind.
Back in Leisureland, Paul continues to work with Ngoc Lan to serve the people of the slums, deriving contentment from things like bringing dinner to an old man.
[24][25] In the United States and Canada, Downsizing was released alongside Father Figures and Pitch Perfect 3, as well as the wide expansions of The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour, and was projected to gross $10–12 million from 2,668 theaters over its four-day opening weekend.
[32] Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, saying that "with startling performances and special effects, director Alexander Payne's dystopian sci-fi satire brims over with the pleasures of the unexpected.
"[33] Conversely, David Sims of The Atlantic gave the film a negative review, writing: "If Payne had landed the mix of genres, Downsizing could have been a masterpiece.