Last night, I watched "Swiss Army Man", one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. It is strange, funny, disgusting, entertaining, uncomfortable, and gets more mileage out of fart jokes than anyone since the Farrelly brothers or Mel Brooks, but it is above all, joyous. It is deeply philosophical (at least to me, but what do I know? I'm an English geek.), but where I find most movies of a philosophical bent to be deeply, incredibly dull, full of people moping around, this was a movie that I not only really, really enjoyed but one that I was glad I'd watched.
In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I'm not going to say too much about the movie just that it stars Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, who are both remarkable, and directed by "Daniels", and revolves around Hank (Dano) who is stranded on a small island and literally on the verge of suicide when he finds Manny, (Radcliffe), a dead body washed up on the beach.
When I was young (long before your time) there was a series of books called "101 Uses for a Dead Cat", essentially a series of macabre cartoons that lived up to the title. "Swiss Army Man" continues that tradition in various hilarious, uncomfortable, and touching ways, but it is much more than that.
Under the delicately handled graveyard humor, is a story about all of us, as we grow more and more disconnected from each other, texting instead of talking, sharing memes instead of thinking, walking around with our ear buds in, building our own little world that revolves around us, and largely includes only us, wondering why we're lonely, why no one seems to care.
It's basically the story of a disconnected man who has lost all of the placebos technology has given us and realizes how alone he really is. Hank and Manny's adventures in trying to return to society, and in learning what it means to be a person and connected on a deep, personal level is both heartbreaking and wonderfully, phenomenally joyous.
It is beautifully shot and filled with color and Daniels never lets the story get bogged down in annoying mopery. The movie is poignant, but never cloying, hilariously gross without ever being gratuitous, ridiculous, but never stupid, and thought-provoking without being oppressive. It is all in all, a wonderful movie, an amazing movie, in many ways, a magical movie. I won't say it changed my life, or that it made me a better person, but it gave me hope...for all of us. Not something I say lightly.
"Swiss Army Man" is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now. Enjoy!
