It was the year of the fart joke at this
year’s Sundance and the stinkiest ones came from Daniel Radcliffe. That is
because he finally played the role he and every other actor was born to play:
a gaseous corpse. It is a somewhat passive part, but he has more dialogue than
you might expect in the Daniels’ Swiss
Army Man, which screens today as the winner of the U.S. Dramatic Directing
Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Seriously, that’s not a joke.
Hank is a castaway on the brink of
suicide. We never really understand how he got there, but the truth is, this
discouraging turn of events is not that worse than his normally crummy life. Just
as he is about to end it all, he sees a body wash up on shore. Unfortunately,
the body really is a body, but in his addled state, Hank starts talking to the
deceased, whom he comes to know as “Manny.”
Despite his lifeless state, Manny is a
handy dude to have around. There is plenty of fresh water to be squeezed out of
his gut and his voluminous gas allows him to power through the water like a
motorboat. In fact, he will fart Hank to within reach of civilization. As the
castaway talks to his lifeless companion, Manny starts to answer back. Is it
all in Hank’s sun-baked head? Yes probably, but Manny still might be able to
help him work through his issues, just by being such a good listener.
Swiss Army is sort of a
love-it-or-hate-it film, yet a handful of us still managed to find ourselves /mixed
on it. On some level, you have to respect the tandem known as “The Daniels”
(a.k.a. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) for their willingness to follow
their weird scatalogical vision through to its logical extremes (especially if
you happen to be a Sundance juror). Nevertheless, as the film stands, it is an
uneasy mix of slapstick and sentiment. Frankly, the things get wildly
overwrought in the third act—at which points the Daniels only have their
tongues partly embedded in their cheeks. That heartstring tugging just feels
cheap and unearned.
Still, you have to marvel at Paul Dano’s
commitment to the often tasteless material. As Hank, the Daniels leave him out
there on a limb, but he manages to create a somewhat poignant sad clown
persona. Although Manny has more to do than most corpses, Radcliffe still
demonstrates a good sense of humor (and a fierce determination to overcome his
Harry Potter image) by taking on the rather stiff role. All things considered,
their chemistry together isn’t that bad.
