Have you ever thought what it would be like to be really, really small? Probably—at least after the requisite childhood viewing of Indian in the Cupboard. Have you ever thought about what it would be like if Matt Damon were really, really small? Probably not.
But now you'll never have to wonder.
Downsizing, the upcoming flick from Oscar-winning director Alexander Payne (the man behind Sideways and The Descendants), explores that very question. It stars Damon and Kristen Wiig as a husband and wife in a not-quite-dystopic and not-quite-utopic future in which a company has figured out how to shrink humans down to fit in the palm of what used to be your hand.
Why would anyone want to do that, you ask? Well, in the world of Downsizing, it's to get way more stuff than you could in your fully-grown life. There is a full society operating under the fingernails of non-downsized people, one where you can have practically whatever you want. Still not sold? Let Damon explain it further.
"The idea in downsizing is you could have a 6,000-square-foot home and two acres all the size of, like, a coffee table," he explained to E! while promoting the film. "I don't know how that would change life, but it's pretty crazy."
Damon and Wiig start off as your typical Midwesterners: Doing just fine but also not thriving the way they'd fully like to be. After growing antsy with things like bills and jobs and not having a giant mansion and they decide to downsize and ship off to Leisure Land. (Yes, that's really what it's called).
Of course, this isn't simply a happy tale about two people whose $100,000 turns into $12,000,000 with the flip of a very intimidating switch—Wiig's character soon decides that she can't actually go through with being zapped (almost) to smithereens and Matt is left to navigate tiny town alone, with no wife to share things like the thrill of turning a human-sized Svedka bottle into a lifetime supply of vodka.
The movie is decidedly more whimsical than anything Matt has done as of late: After the action of Jason Bourne and the dark mafia connections and racial lessons of Suburbicon, playing a pint-sized divorced guy probably felt like a real load off. But his fans also shouldn't discount this entirely as a good laugh and nothing more: The director (and its leading man) are used to getting success during award season, so keep an eye out for the title to sneak its way in.
And, at the very least, there's the joy of that endless supply of vodka.