SWISS ARMY MAN (Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan). 97 minutes. Opens Friday (July 1). See listing. Rating: NNNN
You may have heard that Swiss Army Man is a movie in which Daniel Radcliffe plays a farting corpse. This is true, and you get to experience that in the film’s first five minutes. But there’s other stuff in it, too. Even stranger stuff.
The farting corpse is not the central character of Swiss Army Man, after all. That would be Hank, played by a haggard and especially sad-eyed Paul Dano. He’s a castaway on a tiny island who’s preparing to end his misery with an improvised noose when the corpse washes ashore, providing an essential distraction. Hank names him Manny, and a friendship is formed, especially once Manny starts to talk back.
The feature debut of music video creators Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, Swiss Army Man is a tiny, almost unbearably intimate character study disguised as a toy box. Every twinkly distraction and stylistic flourish is a way for Hank to avoid facing his terrible, crushing loneliness.
And while Dano is terrific – he always is, really – it’d be unfair to write off what Radcliffe does as just a stunt. I would not have expected a movie where a suicidal man rides a farting corpse to freedom to offer two of the year’s richest performances, but that’s Swiss Army Man for you.
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner