Faith & Pop Culture: Downsizing

When I sat down to watch Matt Damon's new comedy, Downsizing, I was expecting a lighthearted and quirky perspective on what life would be like if people were the size of action figures. The movie delivered on that premise with heavy quirkiness. It was also so much more. I walked out of the theater impressed by how this film stepped beyond the confines of humor to deliver a solid, timely, and surprisingly spiritual message.

On the surface, Downsizing is a satire about a middle-class American adjusting to life after a medical procedure shrunk him to a height of five inches tall, coupled with an environmentalist’s morality play. Underneath its skin is a critique of wealth, privilege, discontent, and ignorance. Downsizing is a story about the quest to find the lost soul of America.

image courtesy of Ad Hominem Enterprises and Paramount Pictures

Paul Safranek (played by Matt Damon) is a stand-in for the average American. He has a good job as an occupational therapist at Omaha Steaks; he appears to have a happy marriage and a comfortable life. As you dig into his character, you see cracks. The relationship with his wife isn't solid, he had to leave medical school to care for his ailing mother, he still lives in the house he grew up in, and he carries too much debt to purchase a newer/nicer home. Like many Americans, he struggles through an imperfect life without realizing his many blessings. His smile and child-like wonder mask his true feelings of unease and dissatisfaction. He has a great life yet it is not enough.

Not finding pleasure in a steady job, friends, family, romance, social status, or consumer goods, Paul does what a lot of Americans do. He runs from his problems.

A scientific breakthrough intended to reduce pollution offers Paul a chance at a better life. The irreversible downsizing process would turn his meager net-worth into a fortune big enough to retire in luxury. Miniaturization seems to be the answer for his wildest dreams. He takes the offer but his wife panics and abandons him. Paul quickly finds himself in a paradise, divorced and unemployed, and watching his hopes fade.

Time moves on. Paul stops correcting people who mispronounce his last name, finds work in a call center, moves from his mansion into an apartment, unsuccessfully attempts dating, and dresses like everyone's most boring uncle. Along with his setbacks, Paul also lost his identity. He's a man without purpose.

If we could distill American culture into a singer person, Matt Damon's portrayal of Paul Safranek would be the result. Lost, adrift, and purposeless. We don't know who we are, we're just lonely and eager to please. We're broken people longing to find our reason for being. We do our jobs, go on awkward dates, and complain about our noisy neighbors. We fill the holes in our lives with anything we can find, leisure activities, consumerism, parties, drugs, friends, lovers, celebrity worship, cultural fads, political movements, careers, travel, or hobbies. All of it is a fruitless endeavor if we don't know who we are.

Paul would have been stuck in this aimless wandering through life had it not been interrupted by his eccentric upstairs neighbor Dusan (Christopher Waltz) and a member of Dusan's cleaning crew Ngoc (Hong Chau) - a formerly famous political activist from Vietnam who was shrunk against her will. The first thing Paul noticed about Ngoc was her awkward gait, caused by an ill-fitting prosthetic. Then he recognized her face. One of Paul's greatest joys was meeting people made famous by downsizing: the scientist who discovered the process. The first tiny baby born to a downsized couple. And Ngoc, the lone survivor of a group of downsized Vietnamese refugees stowed away in a TV box.

The playboy and the dissident disrupt everything about Paul's life. Dusan encourages him to be more adventurous, and Ngoc forces him to see the world from a different perspective. Dusan loved Paul for being funny and nice. Ngoc drags him to the ghetto to provide medical care to the least fortunate of the downsized society. One showed him how to have fun, and the other taught him to be compassionate.

It is the latter that revolutionized Paul’s life. Ngoc knows exactly who she is and why she is on earth. When Paul offers to fix her artificial limb, she insists he helps her sick friend first. Despite his protests, she convinces him to accompany her. He follows her on her mission to deliver food and medicine to the sick and impoverished. He sees where she lives and realizes her sick friend is dying. She drags him to church and to her cleaning job. Soon, he goes everywhere she goes.

Paul has poor boundaries. He can’t say no. Dusan invents a story to take Paul to Norway and help him get out of constant work with Ngoc. It doesn’t work in their favor and Ngoc ends up accompanying them on their trip. Even in Norway, Paul still isn’t sure of who he is. He oozes unhappiness. He is ready to abandon his friends to live in an underground bunker with the original downsized colony, convinced that’s his purpose.

Given the opportunity to avoid guaranteed environmental disaster with the Norwegians, Paul went back to Ngoc. In the closing scene, we see a content and truly happy Paul for the first time. For the whole movie, he was miserable. It wasn’t until he willingly sacrificed himself for the service of others that he found peace and joy. It wasn’t until Paul was doing God’s work that he discovered who he was.

Ngoc opened Paul’s eyes. For the first time, Paul realized the promise of success and riches aren’t evenly distributed. He began to see the inequity in how people are treated. He witnessed first-hand something he never knew existed. Ngoc proved Jesus’ words to be true: “You will always have the poor with you, and you can help them anytime you want.” Caring for the poor is where Ngoc found satisfaction. That was her source of harmony and confidence. She knew that was where God wanted her.

Considering the current state of affairs in America, we could all use a little more peace and joy. We’ve lost our soul. We don’t know who we are. Maybe we it’s time we sacrificed our own dreams and pursuits to help those in need. Perhaps we should give up our privilege for those who have none. Can you imagine what kind of world we would live in if the church stepped up and did God’s work, providing for the least of these? Paul found his purpose there. Why can’t we?

Disclosure: there is a lot of naked dudes in this movie. All of it was presented in a medical or scientific context. None of it was sexual. However, be warned. If the sight of male genitals makes you uncomfortable, you probably should avoid watching. Otherwise, I recommend you see Downsizing, it's good quirky fun with a deep moral lesson.