Now THAT’S how you do a fart joke. Simply, Swiss Army Man is what the previews and meme’s have suggested it as: Harry Potter plays a boner-ridden corpse that farts all the time. The more you think about Swiss Army Man though, the more it sticks with you for its deep study of a troubled soul reaching out for help. Or you can just laugh at fart noises.
We first meet Hank (Paul Dano) in dire straits. He’s eaten all of his food, and he’s all alone, so he decides to hang himself. Then he spots what will become Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), a body awashed on the shore whose farts can propel Hank off the island. The two wash up to a new place, where they team up to potentially meet up with Sarah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Hank’s love.
As a premise, Swiss Army Man is as wholly original as Being John Malkovich. That setup above is not a spoiler: that happens in the first 10 minutes of the movie. After the setup the movie goes down a series of endlessly fascinating lessons as Hank talks to Manny about why he’s going where he is going. Each conversation highlights different pieces of Hank’s psyche and how he ended up in such a forlorn situation. It also shows what great lengths Hank is willing to go to try to be a good friend to this new “person” he met, as if to make up for lost time. During this character study though, the movie lays on the funny with copious uses of erections, karate chops, Sports Illustrated, and forest legos. Daniels (Dan Kwan, Dan Scheinert) the directors always make sure to never let the despair grow too thick and the surreal never become too real. That means the movie successfully walks this line tonally between funny and dark, which (like Radcliffe farts) keeps the audience on their toes and guessing scene to scene. I at no point had any idea where this was going, or how deep and funny it may or may not end up.
All success in this movie goes to the Weekend at Bernie’s leads in Cast Away. Paul Dano won’t get the credit he deserves here because of his showy co-lead. Dano is the only character that experiences complex emotion for most of this film, like Tom Cruise in Rain Man. As such, Dano has to teach and learn simultaneously, being forced to relive a past he wants to get away from but has to talk about to help his new friend. In addition to the central mystery, Dano’s emotional journey is captivating entertainment thanks to his great performance. But rightly so, Daniel Radcliffe deserves the accolades he’s getting for his work here. Early on, Radcliffe has to contort in crazy ways because he is playing a corpse that can’t do anything. As the story progresses, Radcliffe is excellent playing as the title suggest, an all-purpose corpse that does cool physical stuff; however, the Potter veteran goes deeper with his portrayal of a rapidly learning blank slate that is Manny. Radcliffe does wonders breathing escalating humanity into a dead body that by the end the movie Radcliffe had made me believe Manny wasn’t really a dead body despite the makeup. Even Bernie couldn’t pull that off so well!
Swiss Army Man got popular because its first screening inspired walk outs from uptight movie goers. I guess these guys can’t take a low brow joke huh? Come on, people! Do you know how hard it is to make different farting sounds, and make the fart actually MATTER in a movie? I boo your walkout!