Directed and Written by : Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Starring : Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe
Release Date : June 24, 2016
Without a doubt, "Swiss Army Man" is probably the most unique and most inventive film of 2016. The premise of a man on the verge of suicide, who finds a corpse, and discovers that it has special abilities that can help him survive in the wilderness, definitely sounds insane. It is definitely quite bonkers. Even so, it is a fascinating movie to watch because of the premise. Not to mention the film looks spectacular, with visuals that just grabs your attention. The soundtrack is also a major highlight, and it's even cleverly integrated into the story.
Paul Dano is spectacular here as Hank, who is this pathetic socially inept man. Daniel Radcliffe is the swiss army man of a corpse that is named Manny, and is likely the main reason to see this movie. You go into this thinking that it will be a series of clever scenes that features Manny's particular skills, of being used as a jet ski, to create sparks for fire, to become a ballistic weapon, etc... While you do get to see those abilities being used, the majority of them are relegated into brief montage sequences, with the main focus of the movie being more about Hank and Manny commenting about life, companionship, existentialism, and acceptance.
There's a lot to admire about this film and the Directors' vision, but there's also a lot that I found frustrating about it, and was pushing my patience. I'm not even talking about it's crude sense of humor that involves farts, feces, or erections, because those didn't really bother me. It's the fact that the film's overall thematic and underlying message is very much one note, not subtle, and just drags on too long. It didn't help that the creative, nonsensical, quirky, whimsical, outrageousness, preciousness, of this movie just wore out it's welcome for me. It's like this should have just been made into a short film, and not a full length feature.
Some people might find "Swiss Army Man" to be absolutely charming, sweet, and exhilarating anyway. While there were many aspects about the movie that I didn't like, I did find appeal to it's comedic nature and it's inventiveness. I also dug the Jurassic Park jokes.
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