Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Swiss Army Man'

​Written by Mike Cervantes

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Perhaps one of my more despicable qualities is my tendency to revel in the disappointing careers of an actor after their extremely popular film series comes to an end. While I’m not usually a fan of celebrity-based Schadenfreude, I find it oddly amusing to find myself wading waist deep in the mediocre after-projects of actors like Hayden Christensen, or even those of Mark Hamill. Strange, how it is that this fate has never befallen Daniel Radcliffe, who has spent the post-Potter career he literally grew up within living up to the first three letters of his own last name. He’s a media darling, a staple of late-night talk shows thanks to his inimitable class and approachable personality.

Odder still is the fact that after they boarded up the doors to Hogwarts, Radcliffe has only participated in projects that could be described as “indy but not” semi-mainstream small studio films. Here is an actor who never fails to endear himself to audiences worldwide without letting his ankles wade too deep in the marsh of mainstream American filmmaking.

What’s the secret to this success? Well, mainly it seems to be the fact that every role he’s taken on since the Potter years has been a challenge. While perhaps his role in the West End revival of the Gonzo play Equus will always remain the oddest point of his career, it has certainly characterized the type of actor he has become, with roles in movies like The F Word, Horns, and even bit-roles like the one he had in Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck.

Swiss Army Man is certainly one of those films, a single film of 95 minutes and 5 small scale production companies, now released wide but still only available in 25% of theaters near you. The premise is enough to make you nod your head and say “Yep, that’s a Radcliffe movie.” Paul Dano plays “Hank,” a man who left civilization a long time ago because he just couldn’t hack it, only to find himself stranded on a beach, an even bigger failure at the Robinson Crusoe-esque alternative. From the opening of the film, he is seconds from hanging himself when he spots a dead body, played by Radcliffe, washed up on shore. He understandably, resumes attempting to hang himself until he spies the “miracle” of the corpse letting off a seemingly endless fart that propels him around the shallow waters of the beach. Seeing an opportunity to return to civilization, Hank immediately places a rein on the corpse and rides him to an opposite shore.

Before you can expect a two-man, low budget version of Weekend at Bernie's, or even a parody of Cast Away with a lifeless body in the role of Wilson the volleyball, Hank quickly bonds with the corpse, giving him the name “Manny,” and giving him personality cues based on his on feebly-lived life. It isn’t long before Radcliffe steps into the dead skin of this corpse and begins to talk back to Hank, essentially an even more naïve student to Hank’s life teachings.

As the film goes on, Manny gains even more useful abilities as Hank’s personal survival tool: he can be coiled back for a wood-splitting karate-chop, he can shoot rocks like bullets fired from his mouth, and he can carry water like a canteen, enough for Hank to shower under in one scene. Most poignantly, Manny seems to have an erection that always points towards civilization, but in order for Hank to utilize this properly, he has to school Manny in the principles of love, which is a thing Hank only knows of due to his pathetically brief and one-sided romance with a girl he knew of on a bus named Sarah, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

It is with this premise that the concepts of survival, and buddy road film finally leave the stage to make room for an allegorical story about life itself, frequently detouring into discussions of farting, poop, and personal weirdness. All concepts of civilization fall away as this one misfit and his dead body philosophize about life in ways that seem simple and goofy, but actually have more philosophical weight than they let on. By the end of the film, you end up feeling for Hank and Manny more than you should for a sad, selfish loser and the dead body that he’s projecting on.

For all its good qualities, it’s sad to say that the way the plot unfolds is rather predictable for a film of this kind. It becomes obvious, for example, that everything we see in this movie is through Hank’s obviously exhausted and hallucinating mind. Everything in the film supports this notion, right down to the soundtrack, which is often made up of acapella hummed by Dano and Radcliffe.  Scenes that are supposed to be inspired in terms of set design and interplay between these two excellent actors are thus reduced by the realization that Hank himself is so damn tragic. We unfortunately can’t be as ideally out of our minds as we’re watching the film as Hank is while he’s participating in it. Otherwise the whole film might have had more of a point.

However, if you’re looking for a fun 90 minute indy flick, that dares to toss a little strangeness and grossness into a typical story of man’s redemption, there have been far worse attempts than Swiss Army Man.

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