Review of Swiss Army Man (2016) by Jon S — 13 Apr 2017

Better than it sounds. So this is about a young man (Paul Dano) who is shipwrecked by himself on an island. He is literally at the end of the rope when a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washes up on shore. By finding impractical uses for the dead body, he is able to start making the journey back to civilization.

Now I knew about the premise to this, and Swiss Army Man's reputation proceeds itself; if you have heard about this movie before, you probably know it as the farting corpse movie. That infamy may force you into forming a few assumptions about this film, and while that plot item does certainly play a large part to the actual story of this, it is so much more than just that.

Now I don't think I've seen all that many survival comedies before, so there is a novelty to this. I love how this isn't afraid to get weird, although you may have already guessed that about a story where a dead body is a main character.

Not only does this corpse speak with and interact with our lead character, he's also got personality as well. It's almost like he is an adult toddler: curious, and constantly asking the incessant question "why" to obvious everyday tasks.

He's also got no filter or measure of what is appropriate and what's not, so this leads to many a humorous conversation. Eventually, though, you will be forced to ask yourself the following question: how much of this is taking place in our protagonist's head and how much is occurring in real life? This is a two man show, and both Dano and Radcliffe breathe a ton of life into this strange little story.

It gets silly to be sure, as there is cross-dressing, farting and erection compasses, but it's also oddly artistic as well. At its core it has got this sad little indie story to tell, and it ends up having a whole lot of heart.

Swiss Army Man is well edited and put together, and it is a unique overall package that I can recommend to most.