You imagine the premise of communities built around people shrunk to a few inches tall as a personal cost-savings / environmental accommodation came to Alexander Payne in a sudden flash of genius. And then the hard art of fashioning an actual plot after the world-building is complete became a long, circuitous slog with nearly no payoff.The events leading up to and including the process by which Matt Damon's occupational therapist character finds himself alone in the downsized community suggest a fascinating plot ahead. And it never comes. Damon dates but that doesn't work out, he parties with his upstairs neighbor, finds himself working as a house cleaner after he becomes dissatisfied with a call center job. None of these threads is interesting and dialog as sparkling as tap water provides no help. The intriguing parts of the cast receive little screen time in favor of non-native English speaking actors whose accents are too impenetrable to be entertaining. The 2 hour, 15 minute run-time also does the movie no favors with long interstitial shots of scenery which worked effectively in "The Descendants" given it's more emotional and flat-out interesting subject matter. In short (get it?!), avoid.
Review of Downsizing
