Swiss Army Man’s overarching theme is simple but poignant: just how banal, unnecessary and ultimately alienating so many practices that we take for granted in society are. No culture is free from arbitrary taboos and customs which, if you pull back, reveal themselves as completely useless, if not harmful.
One of the key scenes in the film comes when Hank (Paul Dano), lost in the woods with a resurrected corpse (Daniel Radcliffe – more on the absurdity of the whole thing later), puts on crude drag to jog his buddy’s memory of a past love. Tiring of this, he tells Radcliffe: “Do you know what people back home would think if they saw me in this?” Then he remembers he’s not home. He keeps the drag on for much of the movie.
Radcliffe is clueless. He doesn’t remember anything about “home,” and the more Dano explains it, the worse it looks. You can’t fart around people. You can’t talk about masturbating. You can’t look certain ways, talk certain ways, for reasons Dano is often at a loss to explain. For a brief moment, they consider staying in the woods and making a life for themselves. Then they accidentally stumble into a suburban backyard, and society’s shit comes tumbling down on them.
The movie’s smart about what behavior it condones and doesn’t condone. Dano finds himself using the word “retarded” and castigates himself, knowing it hurts people. He talks often about a girl he fell for on the bus, and he’s got a discreet picture he took of her on his phone. The movie doesn’t approve of this, as it shouldn’t. But it’s implied that he might have been able to work up the guts to talk to her if not for all the little social nuances that trip us up. These things are impossible to learn, as Dano’s attempts at “teaching” Radcliffe show. Some people never learn them. Radcliffe hasn’t, and Dano barely has a grasp on them.
This is a film that will resonate with underdogs. A queer reading is easy too. Radcliffe finds himself attracted to Dano (albeit in drag), and there are many homoerotic moments including several kisses. They might well have been happier with each other than with the women back “home” they long for. And, of course, why shouldn’t Dano be able to wear a dress? There’s no gender out in these woods.
But Swiss Army Man certainly won’t be to everyone’s tastes, in part due to how ridiculous it is. Even its most tear-jerking moments are absurd; the emotional climax of the film comes as Dano’s being dragged off by a bear, smiling. Radcliffe is capable of using his enormous penis as a compass, dispensing unlimited quantities of water from his mouth, and propelling himself through the ocean with his own flatulence – a veritable Swiss Army Man.
It’s also very much in line with indie aesthetics, and anyone who winces at the mere thought of Juno will find much to gripe about here. The soundtrack’s mostly twee clapping and harmonizing (no whistles, thank god), there are some irritatingly quirky fantasy sequences, and yeah, they’re in the woods for most of it. But Swiss Army Man doesn’t speak to the part of the brain that craves satisfying aesthetics. It speaks to the soul.
