It is a very rare occurrence for me to walk out of a theater completely speechless, so overwhelmed with raw emotion that I can't manage to form words to describe what I thought about the movie I'd just seen. It's not rare for me to walk out of a theater crying, laughing, or ranting my way through some combination of both... But to stand there in complete silence, to feel like any words I could say wouldn't be enough, or would be too much, is such a strange feeling that is reserved for only the most special of films. Those like "Swiss Army Man," the story of a man and a corpse.
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Now, don't let me fool you into thinking it was the best film ever made or something like that. That isn't what I'm here to do. I'm here to tell you the story of how I sat down in front of a screen to see this revolutionary film I'd waited so long to see and was suddenly terrified it would be too weird and that I'd hate it. I was very scared as the film opened with what it had been advertised as: Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse. I'd been excited for this movie since it was just confused whispers at film festivals, but I knew I couldn't take an entire movie of this.
I wonder if anyone noticed that I was literally clenching my teeth; praying to some film gods out there that this movie would be what I knew it could be, and what it would be. The story of Hank, stranded on an island, and Manny, the corpse who saves his life. The film's name is a clever nod to a swiss army knife, as Hank constantly refers to Manny as his 'all-purpose tool.' In the end, he is so much more than just a tool.
We first see Manny as a corpse washed up on a beach, flopping around in the water and farting. Hank uses him to jet-ski across the ocean back to the mainland so he can get home. After this we learn all kinds of special skills Manny has that can help Hank. When Hank is running out of water, Manny seems to spew water endlessly from his mouth. Hank loads rocks into Manny's mouth and hits him in the chest to shoot down birds and squirrels for food. We learn about Manny's infamous boner that seems to be a compass leading them home.
Throughout all this, Hank teaches Manny about the world. He teaches him about people and places and everything back home, and Manny begins to become more and more like a real human and less of a corpse. We see their friendship form, and Hank is no longer the lonely man stranded on an island. One day Manny sees Hank's cell phone background photo of a woman named Sarah, and he falls in love with her. He wants to see Sarah, because he believes that when they get back to the real world he will find Sarah and that they know each other. So we get to meet Sarah.
Arguably the most touching scene in the entire film is Hank building a bus to teach Manny about Sarah. He doesn't know her; Sarah is just a girl he saw on the bus and took a picture of because she looked happy and he was too afraid to talk to her. Hank dresses up as Sarah and teaches Manny how to say hello to her. He does for Manny what he would never have done himself. Hank becomes Sarah and teaches Manny how to love, while Manny unknowingly teaches Hank about friendship.
A film so beautifully crafted about togetherness yet so buried beneath the wildest of oddities is what DANIELS have created with "Swiss Army Man." I don't know that any film has, or ever will again, be able to create this juxtaposition that makes me feel both incredibly strange yet touched so deep down. As I watched the end, a beautifully ambiguous one, the only words I could truly think to say were... thank you.
