Swiss Army Man (2016) (Review)

Swiss Army Man (2016) is a very strange film about a man alone, stranded and suicidal on an uninhabited island until he meets and befriends an animated corpse of a man, that gives him hope in life again. I’m going to have a lot to say !!! The title didn’t make me want to see this film at all. It’s the trio Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano, Mary Elizabeth Winstead which beckoned  me to watch this movie.

First of all, it manages to find its place in many genres, namely : Comedy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy, Adventure! A wonderful and funny movie. Daniel Radcliffe showed once again that he is a talented actor and that he can do something else than Harry Potter. “Jungle” was excellent. And here he is just incredible! 

Swiss Army Man is one of those films that I think divides opinions a lot. Either you think it’s great or you think it’s a flop. Personally, I had a great time in front of this totally crazy film. Great actors, great music and, apart from all the weirdness, an extremely human story.

Paul Dano really made me happy. He was in the masterpiece “Little Miss Sunshine”, the priest who ends up very badly in the disturbing “There will be blood”, he was also very bad in the very good “Prisoners” and he is the latest to play Enigma in the latest Batman. It’s fair to say that he knows how to choose interesting roles that force him to go beyond his limits every time. 

As for the exceptional Mary Elizabeth Winstead… well… we hardly see her!  We see her mostly in pictures during the whole film. We finally see her in the last 15 minutes and she really doesn’t disappoint.  

I have rarely laughed so much in a movie. The intro is exceptional! But alas, the film becomes a bit hard to follow. It sinks into the ridiculous after an hour. The ending is unfortunately not as good as the beginning. But it is quite acceptable. The film is not perfect… but it is a masterpiece of absurdity in a good way. A really scathing humour. 

Film directed by two Daniel’s! It’s crazy to have so many for one film. Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan made another film after this one. It remains to be seen if they managed to do better… or if they should also stop like so many others.