Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man tells the rather inexplicable story of a shipwrecked man (Paul Dano’s Hank) who stumbles upon a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe’s Manny) and discovers that it’s somehow sentient, with the narrative, past that point, detailing the oddball friendship that ensues between the extremely mismatched pair. It goes without saying that Swiss Army Man is one of the most overtly oddball films to emerge in quite some time, with, especially, the picture’s opening half hour requiring a tremendous amount of patience and leeway from the viewer. (It’s during this portion of the proceedings that one is forced to wonder if filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert have anything more up their sleeves than one-note weirdness.) There’s little doubt, then, that the movie improves considerably as it progresses, as Kwan and Scheinert slowly-but-surely begin infusing the narrative with unexpectedly potent bursts of emotion – with the increasingly compelling bond between the two protagonists heightened by an emphasis on impressively cinematic set-pieces and sequences. (The movie’s high point, for example, is a dazzling interlude in which Hank attempts to jog Manny’s memory by replicating a pivotal bus ride.) From there, Swiss Army Man, anchored by its incredible lead performances, entertainingly makes its way through a second half that’s erratic yet often captivating – with the hilariously off-the-wall conclusion cementing the movie’s place as a singularly conceived and executed piece of work.

*** out of ****