The playful combination of Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, in addition to the light and eye-catching editing seen throughout the film, unfolded a beautifully told story in “Swiss Army Man.”
Although I walked into the theater skeptical due to the artsy trailer, the film left me with a goofy grin on my face and gave me a better appreciation for the smaller nuances of life.
The story follows Dano’s character Hank, who is stranded on an isolated island in the middle of the ocean. When Hank is about to commit suicide to save him the trouble of dying from starvation, he sees a body wash up on the shore. He rushes over to the body, and soon finds out the seemingly deceased carcass, played by Radcliffe, has unusual abilities which shine as his golden ticket to find his way back to the mainland.
As the story progresses, Hank and his new dead friend, who we later find out is named Manny, bond over what it means to live life. Although it starts out silly with Manny relentlessly farting in front of Hank, the story gives an unexpected deep analysis of why we shouldn’t care about what other people think. Manny’s body proves to be the catalyst for this discussion multiple times throughout the film, with strange powers including his erection, which has the ability to point in the direction of where the duo should go to find civilization.
The two find themselves in strange situations throughout the film. To find the way home, Hank has to recreate his personal memories of love, which triggers both deep distraught and admiration of a particular girl he has never met, by using the branches, vines and trash littered across the forest. Some of these scenes are his sad and creepy interactions with her, while others are his delusional daydreams.
When Hank built these memories from scratch, the director chose to create fluffy, jump cut style scenes, where montages would flash in and out, comparing Hank’s real life interactions with the girl to his aspiration of one day swooping off her feet. These thoughts and re-creations by Hank created such a playful movie environment, which kept viewers engaged, watching the big screen, rather than the time.
Although Dano’s performance was stellar, Radcliffe was the star of the show. He did all of his own stunts, and his acting was surprisingly convincing. He kept the character’s blissful ignorance of civilized life captivating and subtly funny, and as Manny learned more and more about life in Hanks homeland, he portrayed the character's emotional shifts wonderfully.
This movie wasn’t perfect, but it was a beautiful experience to say the least. The intro was a tad slow, and without context Hank’s humming in the beginning set the movie up to be another artsy fartsy movie. Rather than focusing on creating a symbolic piece which only the most film literate would understand, the vision of this piece was to keep the meaning clear as day and broad enough to inspire a large audience.
“Swiss Army Man” is a gracefully playful film. It will subliminally make you rethink why we are so critical over small nuances, and it has made me question, at least for the time being, why we as a society have lost our sense of humility.
