Swiss Army Man is a 2016 American comedy-drama adventure film written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. It stars Paul Dano as Hank, a hopelessly stranded man on an island, Daniel Radcliffe as Manny, a seemingly dead man with special powers, and Elizabeth Winstead as Sarah, a beautiful love interest. Swiss Army Man (2016) movie review
After he comes close to killing himself out of rescue being completely being out of question, Hank finds a corpse on the beach. He soon finds out is special and can keep him company. As the story progresses, they start to communicate. They talked about love, life, and bodily functions that tend to be private but all normal. To Danny this is all new so he starts to develop e big appreciation for it and questions why these things are private instead of being used to bring us all together. Hank tries to tell him the norms of the society in order to bring him joy. This is how we are introduced to Sarah, who is not featured in the movie a lot . The majority of the movie is between Hank and Manny.
There are many interpretations of Sarah’s meaning, but I see it as a beacon of hope. She is a ray of sunshine in a hopeless situation. From this point on Hank and Manny develop this deep friendship where they reenact scenes of life and how they imagine things could be in a perfect world, all using trash on the island. Hank uses Manny to show us how things would be if he was more confident in himself. He had played it in his head plenty of times, never having courage to pursue it in real life. It is represented in this surreal dream like fantasy sequence. It is both memorable and extremely dramatized as the actors reenact the connection between Hank and Sarah.
Due to endless amount of childish humor (mainly farting to light fire, farting to propel a person in the water, and using an erection as a compass), many people at the Sundance premiere walked out at the screening of the movie. However, those who can ignore this aspect or even better, see it as something like a taboo that we humans need to overlook as we all do it, the movie does have a heart. They discuss all aspects of life and it feels like all the wonderful things that we tend to cherish. Some things we even take for granted. It can get a bit crass but again, part of life.
I am not saying this movie is perfect, not even by a long shot. However, it is weird in a good way. It discusses life and the things we humans experience in a way that could make us uncomfortable but also happy because it is the way of life. Again, a lot of erections, masturbation talk, and many, many instances of farting could and will deter some people. However, the movie is so unique that in the end it truly becomes weirdly beautiful.
Thanks for reading my Swiss Army Man (2016) movie review
