Downsizing or Blame Women For All Your Shortcomings
It's been a day and a half since I saw Downsizing and I’m still not sure what I think about it. The problem was mostly a tonal one, which was partly the fault of the trailer for advertising it as a whimsical comedy, when I’m not sure if Downsizing wants me to be moved by the good that people are capable of or gloomily contemplate the downfall of humanity, or just laugh at a few dick and butt jokes. The messages from the women in this film are just as mixed.
*Downsizing spoilers follow*
Most of the women in Downsizing fall into the reductive and derogatory category of “look at all these women who let Paul (Matt Damon) down even though he’s such a nice guy.” The first woman to be guilty of such a crime is Paul’s unnamed mother (Jayne Houdyshell) who does nothing but complain, and Paul later goes on to imply that the reason he never rose to meteoric heights as a surgeon is that he had to put his own life on hold to care for her in her illness. She promptly dies off screen and is replaced by Paul’s wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), who is in the same room of the same house still bemoaning her own pain, whilst Paul does what he can to care for her. Audrey also disappoints Paul by failing to downsize with him, therefore robbing him of his life of luxury, forcing him to live in a humble apartment rather than a mansion and hold down a job in a call centre. She is shown to be greedy and materialistic - she’s the one who wants the big house, Paul just wants to make her happy, and she appears to force a better deal out of the divorce settlement. Furthermore, her decision making is irrational, vain and selfish; it’s having her head shaved that triggers her decision not to downsize and she’s constantly wailing about how everything affects her, showing little consideration for how Paul feels. Therefore, both Paul’s wife and mother seem to merge into one female proxy that symbolises how women keep taking the things he deserves away from him - his career, dream house and life of leisure are all kept from him by these women.
Once he is small, women continue to let Paul down. He attempts to start dating again, and meets single Kristen (Kerri Kenney), a single mother also coping with some of the unforeseen problems of downsizing - such as her son being afraid of his enormous grandparents. Paul willingly subverts her saying that it’s too soon for him to meet her son into Kristen dumping him and storms off, leaving her calling after him in the corridor; in his mind, once again abandoned by a woman. Even when he tries to blow off some steam at a party, Paul is “deceived” by an anonymous woman who offers him drugs, which Paul appears to believe is some sort of unspoken contract for a sexual encounter, but once he has taken the pill she returns to the party, leaving Paul alone and hard done by again.
The only female character with any substance is Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chan), a Vietnamese activist who was downsized against her will in a prison which killed her sister before becoming the only survivor of a perilous crossing to America in a television box which cost her one of her legs. Her backstory alone immediately makes her a much more interesting character than Paul, whose only real problem is that he is divorced and not quite as rich as he would like to be. Additionally, she has a personality, which is more than can be said for Paul. Instead of a meek and mild mannered martyr, she is fiery, direct, honest and pragmatic, showing her care for others through useful actions. She is at the utter bottom of the socio-economic chain of the supposedly idyllic Leisureland community, but she never laments her situation, she just does what she can to make it better for those around her, caring for the sick and collecting food for the rest of her community.
Paul is also shown to be a good person, he constantly tends to the injuries of those around him, but these gestures almost seem superimposed onto the film, a big, flashy sign that says, “look at poor Paul, he’s such a nice guy.” If these instances were removed from Downsizing, he’s just a man constantly believing that he’s been short-changed by life, chasing the idea that he deserves better and is meant to be part of something bigger. He also seems to feel the need to bring women with him on these ventures, first (unsuccessfully) talking Audrey into downsizing with him, then attempting to bring Ngoc Lan into a doomsday cult vault with him where they would spend the rest of their lives. Their two responses to this situation sum up the differences in their characters perfectly - Paul wants to go because he believes he is intrinsically important and destined to become a part of something monumental, whereas Ngoc Lan chooses to stay because she knows for a fact that she can still do good to actually help people out in the real world.
The romance between these two characters is completely inexplicable; it comes out of nowhere, neither of them seem to have actually had feelings for each other up to that point, and appears to only serve to give Paul a reason to come out of the vault and back to reality at the end. Friendship and the value of the common sense in Ngoc Lan’s advice to stay and deliver pragmatic aid to people in need could have been enough, but apparently sex had to be the main motivator.
There are a few other named female characters, and women are very present in the background as nurses, administrators, real estate agents and sales representatives. One of the latter is Laura Lonowski (Laura Dern) who we briefly meet in a bath trying to convince people to downsize because they can have lots of diamonds, just like her. Anne-Helene Asbjørnsen (Ingjerd Egeberg) makes several short appearances as the wife of Dr. Jørgen Asbjørnsen (Rolf Lassgård), the scientist who made downsizing possible. In some respects she is a pioneer, as one of the first people ever to downsize, but she is mostly portrayed as a devoted wife, supporting Jørgen in all of his decisions and endeavours, even if they involve starting a doomsday cult. Finally, there is Solveig Edvardsen (Margareta Peterson), a fellow believer in the apocalypse, who seems to exist to emphasise the fanaticism of the Norwegian colony, with her eccentric behaviour and appearance, as well as making Paul (and presumably, the intended audience) uncomfortable with the sexuality of a comfortable older woman, as her talking about mountain Paul as a pony in her dream is one of the moments that Downsizing seems to be reminding us that it’s maybe a comedy.
Overall, the women in Downsizing are mostly used as the root cause of all the shortcomings in the life of one fairly uncharismatic and uninteresting man. Thankfully, Ngoc Lan rises above this as a human being with an actual personality and sense of purpose. She overcomes so much adversity and remains positive without becoming a sappy stereotype of a do-gooder. It’s just a shame to see such a unique female character suffer a fate as old as cinema itself, falling into an unfathomable romance with the main white man, when friendship could have been just as poignant.
I really enjoyed how many satisfying levers, dials and switches there were in this film, the fidgeter in me wanted to play with them all.
Umm, excuse me, why was there such an extended colonic irrigation scene? Can we please never do that again?
I think if I was supposed to be sickened by anything in this film it was humanity (maybe?) but really it was the proliferation of McMansions. My eyes!
