Directed and Written by: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Cast: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Without a doubt, Swiss Army Man was the most bizarre movie I’ve seen. Think Castaway meets Fight Club meets Weekend at Bernie’s with a magical and super useful corpse and you come sort of close to Swiss Army Man. Full disclosure – I really just wanted to see this movie because Daniel Radcliffe aka Harry Potter is in it. I knew very little about this before I viewed it, so I didn’t really know what to expect.
Hank (Dano) is a castaway. I wasn’t exactly sure how long he’s been lost for, but it was enough time for him to grow an unruly beard and become desperate. Just as he is about to end it all, he sees a dead body wash up on shore (Radcliffe). Suddenly, the body farts – a lot. Like, almost never-ending. Intrigued, Hank investigates and discovers he can use the power of flatulence the body is letting out as a human jet ski to get off the island, which he does. He basically rides this corpse through the waves like a dolphin. And that’s only the beginning!
Hank and the corpse land onshore near a forest where there is a variety of odd items, including lots of garbage and other assorted objects. Once Hank and the corpse take shelter in a cave, Hank discovers that the corpse can talk. His name is Manny, and he seems to have some supernatural powers (besides being dead and speaking), including but not limited to: using the power of flatulence to fuel a fire, providing a never-ending supply of drinkable water, using his erection as a compass, the ability to shoot pebbles out of his mouth like it was a gun, and he can launch projectiles from his mouth, such as a harpoon. Hank also uses Manny’s mouth as a razor, which was pretty gross.
Since Manny is dead, he doesn’t really understand anything. It’s like his brain was wiped clean when he died. So Hank has to explain things to him, mainly what home is and getting back home. Hank has to carry Manny’s body through the forest and along the way, uses the random objects he finds to teach Manny things. Their motivation for making it home is the woman whose picture is on the wallpaper of Hank’s slowly dying cell phone, Sarah (Winstead). You aren’t sure how she fits into Hank’s life.
The majority of the movie is just Hank and Manny, trying to get Hank home. The rest of the movie was filled with farts. I am not kidding. I wish I could find out the amount of time that farts were made in this movie. If someone wasn’t doing it, they were talking about it. Now, my attitude about farts is that they are fun and they make the room warm, but holy cow there sure was a lot of fartness in this movie!
The whole time I was watching Swiss Army Man I kept trying to figure out what was going on, was Manny real or was he a hallucination of Hank’s brought on by hunger and dehydration or something else? Many questions were answered by the end of the film, which I liked, because I do not like not having closure (Inception anyone?). Overall, Swiss Army Man is the tale of a lonesome guy who realizes that, even though he is lonely and pines for a woman who is so far from reach, life is worth living.
Daniel Radcliffe played a corpse who talks and knows nothing really well (you just have to see it to understand). And you can totally understand why he is the Swiss Army Man! Paul Dano was believable as a forlorn man with nothing to live for. I’ll never be able to forget Swiss Army Man, because I have my very own Manny corpse towel to keep forever! If you are looking for a quirky, original, interesting movie, check out Swiss Army Man.
