SWISS ARMY MAN – Rated R – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Starring Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead
As we venture into what I can only imagine is the warped sense of humor and psyche of writers and directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert ~ We meet Hank (Paul Dano), who is stranded on a remote island ~ about to commit suicide ~ but changes his mind when a body washes up on the beach, right before his very eyes. Excited for some companionship, even if it is from an apparent corpse, Hank names his new friend Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) and proceeds to converse with his awesome new friend visiting from the sea…
When Hank realizes that Manny apparently has lots of “Magic Powers” which inevitably may help him on his quest back to civilization ~ our two adventurers set back out to sea, hoping to come across a civilized land mass shortly…
With Hank’s wish granted, thanks to Manny’s super-powered gas expelling…Our boys find themselves back on dry land, but it seems Hank’s mental faculties are slipping away very quickly – as now he is envisioning even more super awesome ways that his dead friend can help him – including Manny getting back his ability to speak, so why not have him throw in a little love advise in Hank’s way now too….
As this encounter between friends plays out more unconventional with each passing moment, it seems that the help that Hank needs lies just right around the corner, but will his relationship with a dead guy, be even more than this help can handle???
I give SWISS ARMY MAN a rating of DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY: Okay, I watched the trailer, and I heard what was coming out of Sundance about this film when it hit…so I was hoping to enjoy each and every quirky little moment and plot twist from this film, especially when I knew Dano and Radcliffe were involved. But, personally for me, even those facts didn’t help me get past all the weirdness and craziness that was happening on screen. Dano plays crazy well – as we have already witnessed with his characterization of Brian Wilson in LOVE & MERCY, and you can’t get much crazier than the part of Hank in this film…and Radcliffe gives a rather compelling performance too – as the waterlogged corpse, who strangely starts farting and talking and so much more, all the way through. Personally, I couldn’t manage to get into the depths of psychological madness playing out on screen, no matter how hard I tried. SWISS ARMY MAN travels to a psychosomatic extreme that I couldn’t begin to understand or explore in my own cerebral capacity. I know that this film was getting RAVE REVIEWS from Sundance, but I also know that other’s left the theater before it was through. And I totally understand this action now, and I may have been there too, if I wasn’t so hell bent on convincing myself that it had to get better by the end…but, that was just an illusion too ;(
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 