Castaway Paul Dano finds a dead body (Dan Radcliffe) washed ashore. Using his farting body as a jet ski, he escapes to the shore of Humboldt Redwoods. That’s not the talking body’s sole usefulness in this surreal comedy, which amazingly manages to maintain the conceit for 94 minutes. It’s a challenge for the Daniels (writer/directors Scheinert and Kwan) to keep such a two-hander interesting for so long, but the film really works.
In the excellent DVD extras (making of, behind the scenes, interviews, film commentary etc.) they explain how they wanted to make ‘a celebration of friendship and collaboration’ as well as ‘a beautiful and heartfelt movie about a farting corpse’. Incredibly, they succeed on all counts. It’s a film in which you never know what’s going to happen next, which is unfortunately rarer than ever these days. Watch and wonder
Before watching this film the only thing I knew about it was that Daniel Radcliffe plays corpose. And, in my view, knowing very little about the film is the best way to watch it.
If you are unusure whethre it is worth your time, I say this: If you want to see an original film, that is bonkers, that is about love, friendship, and life, then this film is for you. You might find you do not like it (and that's fine) but at least you will get to see an original film that made an effort unlike some big budget films I've seen.
P.S. I loved the film.
OMG ...What a ride .What Imagination ......
I Absolutely LOVED this move soo much I have just Purchased it .
It is Completely Bonkers .
A Modern Day 'Robinson Crusoe' who finds a washed up and Dead ,Man Friday his Salvation.
Probably not for Everyone but if Farts make you giggle , and Wiggling Willies,Bare Bums and talking about Masturbation doesnt Shock you rigid ,then the idea of using a Dead Guy that Farts as a useful tool to do all kinds of things including Cutting Wood, Hammering nails,Firing Bullets,Starting Fires,Collecting Water ,Company and even possibly fall in Love maybe just for you ?
A Movie you wont have seen Anything even slightly like before .
Worth more than the one watch , I loved it and I think anyone with a sense of the Bizarre will also .
Okay, so… that happened. Paul Dano gets stuck on a deserted island, befriends Daniel Radcliffe’s corpse and uses it as a multi-purpose tool - a Swiss army knife if you will, and then realizes his magical properties while learning thing or two about farts. A ridiculous premise that mostly relies on weirdness and shock-factor to tell its ridiculous story which, unfortunately, doesn’t go deeper than that trench the character Hank buries the semi-character Manny whilst trying to kill a squirrel, or was it conjuring up a bonfire? Nevertheless, Swiss Army Man, when stripped from all that silly within, is not that deep as it thinks it is.
Or is it?
As Hank (Paul Dano) maroons/finds himself somehow/strands on an island, just before saying bye-bye to life by hanging himself, miraculously spots a dead man’s body which belongs to none other than Manny (Daniel Radcliffe). From here thereon, the movie starts spoon-feeding us slap-stick humor that is intriguing, but just not that funny. And to add insult to injury: farts start getting the comedic treatment for a majority of several scenes which frankly, I cannot see the point of doing so. And so we continue.
Manny as it turns out, wields some (borderline) magical properties that help Hank survive in his endeavors of equal time boredom and loneliness. So we come to learn, Manny serves well as a human-sized lighter device (shooting fire out of his arse), a harpooning machine (spitting harpoon projectiles at unsuspecting fish in a pond) and a hunting rifle (shooting off the head of a seemingly neutral squirrel). Directors Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan sure went out of their way to dig the craziest, most creative ideas out of their craniums and put them on paper for potential adaptation down the road later.
Some of them translated well, while other – not so much.
And one would think that a silly premise like the aforementioned farts and whistles would also yield silly over-the-top exaggerated acting to no avail; this is not the case, since Swiss Army Man features some of the best acting seen in a film (whether or not it’s method acting, I couldn’t tell); Paul Dano as the introvert weirdo does a great job of coming off as an introvert weirdo; Daniel Radcliffe has also gone to great lengths to distance himself from the Potter universe ad one can tell: his portrayal of a dead man has never felt so alive (had to, sorry).
Ultimately, Swiss Army Man boils down to a bizarre and unique digital picture to a point of being bizarre for its own sake. It’s also distinctively original, which is not always a good thing per se.
Should you watch it? The answer is probably yes.