Watched this again on Blu. For a movie with such lofty ambitions, including discovering purpose in life, improving financial status, controlling earth's population, environmental/societal responsibilities, not to mention the whole shrinking gimmick, Payne manages to hold it all together nicely in a running time that is not nearly long enough for all the material he and Jim Taylor crammed into the script. A lot happens in the movie, it's constantly turning and I think that's what turned a lot of people off. Not that it didn't have a consistent tone, its tone is very much like Sideways or About Schmidt, a melancholy comedy, albeit with a fantasy element, rather it didn't have a consistent supporting cast. (SPOILERS) No one sticks around for a long time until Hong Chau shows up more than halfway through, taking the story where it was supposed to go all along.
Matt Damon is disappointed in his life, leaving med school prematurely to care for his sick mother, and is looking for something more than his current career can afford him, both monetarily and spiritually. What that something is, he does not know. Preparing an injection, he tells his mom after she complaints about her constant pains that a lot of people are in pain, in more ways than she can imagine. My peeve is the third act, feeling forced. If Payne had additional time, maybe 10-15 minutes more, the third act, the traditional Payne road trip, where they go to the original small colony, wouldn't feel as forced and awkward. Under Waltz's auspices, Damon is given the opportunity to visit the original colony in Norway, the trip acting as guise to free him from Chau's clutch, but it's just a murky excuse to get them there.
