Film of the Week: Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man is hard to put into a certain category. It’s an adventure, comedy, and a drama, but it also stands far from that as well. It has that fourth element that’s hard to establish properly.

Fart jokes are normally seen as the last resort. Picture this scenario: It’s late at night, the screenwriter(s) have had a long day completing the script, and the deadline is fast approaching. They need only a couple more lines before they can call it a day. They’re tired, so they resort to an easy solution: Fart jokes. Mostly seen as juvenile and possible unprofessional; almost wasting an opportunity, especially when the rest of the film has elements of cleverness. Fart jokes can be seen as the moment that breaks the film. Swiss Army Man takes that and runs with it.

When Hank (Paul Dano) had given up being stranded on a small desert island, he spots a washed up body, (Daniel Radcliffe). Upon investigating, he discovers that whoever it is, he is dead. This is where the weirdness starts, and only but increases. Hank develops an attachment to the body. He starts talking to it as if he was alive, and tries to make the body talks, and after deciphering a few noises, assigns a name, Manny, to the body. After which, the body starts talking by itself. Throughout the film, Hank and Manny goes on an adventure to return to civilisation, during which Hank discovers that Hank has many special powers that helps him.

Their situation can be classed as Hank having hallucinations. Because he’s been separated from human contact for several years, the moment he sees another human, albeit dead, he automatically creates a personality, and starts seeing the body as a living person. It’s a surprisingly deep storyline woven between a strange outer shell. It does include a lot of juvenile moments, which takes the comedic value away, but it is a good adventure. And the soundtrack is beautiful throughout. The music is powerful and does draw me in, but then it immediately returns to the avid immaturity and knocks me back a couple of steps, but then the music starts up again and draws me back in again. That process rotates a few times throughout.

It was a heart-warming moment when he does eventually return to civilisation. This is where realisation starts kicking in. The body was never alive; it was all in Hank’s head. Then it turns that on its head and Manny is seen by the public as we and Hank has seen him throughout. If it had stuck to where I believed it would go, it would have been a powerful ending to that powerful, secret identity hidden within, but it just wasn’t the case. I saw the adventure, I saw the drama, but because of the sporadic nature between the two, there just wasn’t enough room in my head for the comedy. I was too busy trying to find a comfortable place to find it amusing.

Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe's performances were excellent. They did need two people who could carry an entire film between them, and they did pick the right two people. Paul's portrayal of someone who just wants to get home, and is struggling to fully understand what's happening in front of him, and Daniel's learning-the-basics-performance does fill the time enough that you're not craving for more than the two of them. 

However, having said that, it was difficult to know where I stood and how I felt when watching it, and because of that, I can really only say I have strong mixed feelings. Every time it started going in one direction, it jumped backwards, leaving those moments incomplete. Even the hidden meaning within was left hanging when Manny went blasting off back into the ocean. It just left me more confused than anything else. Only the soundtrack was the straightest thing about the whole film.

Normally, it’s easy to watch the film and difficult to write the article about it, but this is the other way round. It was hard to watch the film, but easy to write the article. I knew exactly how I felt about it, but the feelings were far too many at any one time, incomplete, and then borderline meaningless at the end. It’s not something I probably will be watching again any time soon, and it’s not something I probably would be recommending, either. I would say that you would find this entertaining only if you’re curious, but nothing else. You won’t be leaving with anything special, unfortunately.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)