Paul (Matt Damon) is an average guy who just wants to feel like he's helping. When he hears about a procedure that allows people to shrink to 5" tall, purportedly saving the planet by using a fraction of the resources, he is interested but has a hard time selling the concept to his wife, Audrey (Kristin Wiig), until a consultation shows that their standard of living would also shift and that as Smalls, they could live like millionaires. He is all set to live in luxury, and then he meets Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), a Vietnamese dissident and political asylum seeker who was downsized against her will and lost a leg in her escape.
This is a good representation of what it looks like when privileged white people decide to help and get involved when people of color are already doing the work. Paul means well, he genuinely wants to help, but he doesn't really know how and he's kind of a putz. The movie is much nicer to Paul than I think is deserved, but I also understand that being mean to people for trying defeats the purpose.
Doesn't matter because the true star of this movie is Hong Chau. Give her all the roles. She is great. Also, Christoph Waltz! Remember when that dude was in everything? So good.
I don't particularly like Alexander Payne. I think he makes smarmy movies for smarmy, self-indulgent people, but that's me. Maybe you like this. Tyler did. It's currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
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