Swiss Army Man Review

This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review every movie I see.

It's been a couple of years since I saw this film for the first time and fell head over heels for it. Rewatching it after all this time affects me even more now. Swiss Army Man is most certainly not a movie for everybody. It's an almost alienatingly strange movie, but in my opinion, it's all the better for it. Its premise is one of the most unique I've seen in a long time, if not ever -- Paul Dano's Hank Thompson finds himself saved from being stranded on an island when a corpse played by Daniel Radcliffe washes up on the shore, and this corpse (who becomes affectionately known as Manny) serves as Hank's guide and multi-purpose tool as he makes his way back home. This is the example I'm going to use for years to come of a movie that shouldn't work at all, let alone as well as it does. However, somehow, in my opinion, Swiss Army Man absolutely nails its universal message with an off-kilter execution that is somehow heartwarming and bizarre at the same time.

At its core, this film is an exploration of those that feel like outcasts -- people who feel they aren't worthy of affection or are too afraid to open up to others because they feel no one will understand them. It explores the complicated nature of people in general, how people make decisions or say things that feel right at the time but are generally seen as socially unacceptable. It assures those that watch it that there is someone out there that will be willing to understand the reasons they make strange decisions, and there will be people that are willing to support them no matter what. It's a movie that embraces its weirdness because its message involves accepting the strange actions of other people, and somehow, this weirdness makes absolute sense. The movie allows the viewer to suspend their disbelief about the events of this film because it follows a man who has gone completely insane being isolated on an island in the middle of the ocean for who knows how long. He's desperate for connection, he's only had himself for company for so long, and because of that, the idea of him attempting to talk out loud to this corpse feels organic. There are definitely many moments throughout this film that require you to suspend your disbelief about how the characters accomplished them, but the movie does such a great job at embracing its tone that it never feels out of place. Everything about the weirdness of this movie somehow feels endearing.

Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe are absolutely fantastic here. I've loved Dano since I first saw him in Love and Mercy, and it's great to see him give yet another great performance here. Meanwhile, Radcliffe somehow manages to completely disappear into his character. Maybe part of it is the makeup they use to make him look dead, but I don't see him in this movie as Harry Potter or even Daniel Radcliffe, he embodies Manny so well. Both of these actors get opportunities to show their comedic chops in this film because believe it or not, this film is also incredibly funny. There are great moments that result from Manny's lack of understanding about how the world works and how to live life, and he'll say things that are socially unacceptable to normal society but that he genuinely means with the best of intentions. Meanwhile, Hank has to come to terms with the fact that this corpse isn't part of normal society and has to embrace the things he's been afraid to show or things that would humiliate him if anyone else found out about it. There are some genuinely hilarious and also sobering explorations of how society treats those that act outside the "norm" that get people to think about understanding the full picture of somebody before coming to the conclusion that they're crazy or creepy or even weird.

The soundtrack of this movie consists almost entirely of acapella arrangements representing the inner and outer vocalizations of the two characters as songs get stuck in their head, they share songs together, or they just start randomly vocalizing. Andy Hull and Robert McDowell create one of the most unique film "scores" ever through this idea, and it allows you to get even more into the head of these characters. In fact, I think that's something this movie does a great job of doing, and that's making it unclear how much of this entire scenario is in Hank's head and how much is real. Did all of this happen? Is Hank having hallucinations. Could he even be dead? The more I think about that, the more I think the ending kind of leaves things ambiguous for the audience to decide how much is real and how much isn't, and it's just so brilliantly done.

Swiss Army Man is a movie about connecting with those that actually see you for who you are. People act in strange ways, and sometimes those strange actions aren't out of malicious intent. Sometimes, the person means well but executed it in a completely backward way. There's a great line in this movie where Manny talks about how if everyone just accepted one other person in their lives, maybe the world wouldn't be as convoluted and maybe we'd all be more willing to listen to each other. It's an incredibly comforting mentality for someone like me who overanalyzes their actions on a daily basis, acts out impulsively, makes stupid decisions that seem right in the moment but end up being completely misconstrued, and worries that they don't deserve to be seen as a person if someone they care about thinks they're completely insane. Strangely enough, Swiss Army Man is an uplifting movie for the crowd that is willing to embrace its strangeness. It has phenomenal performances, writing, and direction, and it's just one of the most creative movies I've seen in a long time. If you want to watch a really weird and somehow heartwarming movie, give Swiss Army Man a chance. You might just fall in love with it.

Letter Grade: A+