Movie Review: Swiss Army Man (2016)

A drama and adventure about an unlikely friendship forged in the pursuit of rescue, Swiss Army Man is a challenging journey into the disorienting recesses of mental illness.

Hank (Paul Dano) is stranded alone on an island. About to hang himself out of desperation, he notices a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on the beach. With the dead body emitting a regular stream of farts, Hank rides the corpse like a jet ski to the relative shelter of an undefined wooded area, where scattered trash signals nearby civilization and the opportunity for salvation. Hank cannot bring himself to abandon the corpse, and they take shelter together in a cave.

The dead body helps Hank again by vomiting out a stream of drinkable fresh water, and then starts to communicate, adopting the name Manny and the persona of a naive but well-meaning friend. Hank introduces Manny to the picture of a dream woman called Sarah on his cell phone, leading to discussions about masturbation, confidence and Hank's difficult and repressed upbringing. Within his pants Manny's penis springs to action and starts pointing the way out of the forest. Hank carries his friend through the difficult wooded terrain, with Sarah's house as the intended destination.

At face value Swiss Army Man is dumbfounding and more than irritating. The film requires tolerance of a talking, water-emitting corpse that can launch itself like a rocket, endless conversations about masturbation, pop psychology discussions related to dysfunctional parenting, a fart routine repeated too many times, and a penis-as-compass. Hank also appears unable to navigate out of relatively easy terrain, and instead gets distracted by rudimentary role playing related to a singular encounter with an unattainable girl.

Co-directors and co-writers Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan make none of it easy or rationally accessible, laying out events in a stubborn approximation of a dissonant reality where everything appears grounded but actually nothing is. Swiss Army Man works better as a searing exploration of a catastrophic mental illness and severe personality disorder, a representation of the world as only the traumatized and scarred Hank sees it. The final act reveals the very few clues as Hank's physical location is suddenly clarified and Sarah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and a few other characters come into focus.

Most of the film features Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe in a ghastly world of their own, and both actors pull off exceptionally difficult roles. Dano hints at the emotional distress corroding Hank, while Radcliffe gently normalizes the macabre concept of an animated corpse with humour and a surrender to an alternative reality.

Swiss Army Man demands a willingness to accept an incongruous sense of existence. It's a hazardous entertainment experience, but also a courageous one.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The F Word (2013)

A romantic comedy about the pitfalls of friendship evolving into love, The F Word (here the F is for Friends; the film is also known as What If? to sidestep the sly original title) features good laughs, amiable performances and sparking chemistry but not much originality.

In Toronto, technical manual writer Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is finally over his previous failed relationship. At a party he meets animation artist Chantry (Zoe Kazan), the cousin of his best friend Allan (Adam Driver). Wallace and Chantry hit it off, but agree to be just friends because she is already in a long-term committed relationship with boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall), a United Nations policy negotiator.

Allan enters into a new relationship with Nicole (Mackenzie Davis), while Chantry's sister Dalia (Megan Park) tries to seduce Wallace. Ben relocates to Ireland for a six month assignment, clearing the way for Wallace and Chantry to develop a stronger bond. But transforming a deep friendship into a romance will not be easy for either of them.

The age old question of whether men and women can ever be just friends gets another treatment, and in the hands of director Michael Dowse and a game cast, the potholes along the well-intentioned road of friendship provide ample opportunities for humour. A Canadian-Irish co-production, The F Word offers a satisfying clutch of idiosyncratic characters navigating careers and love lives, and while the ultimate destination is as predictable as the genre demands, the journey is never less than pleasantly breezy.

The conundrum of an emerging attraction with one partner already pre-committed powers the film. Ben is a rising star in his chosen career field and offers plenty of attractive stability, but he may already be taking the relationship with Chantry for granted, creating the emotional encouragement for her and Wallace to take every tentative next step.

Plenty of joy is derived from the instant chemistry between Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, and both actors easily embrace their roles as slightly insecure but nevertheless willing partners in the quest for companionship. But while the script is mostly sharp and enjoys some genuinely funny exclamation points, passages of dialogue are obviously improvised, and these tend to be weak, often defaulting to unfunny and gross non-jokes about body functions. Also disappointing is the oh-so-predictable tiff Wallace and Chantry are forced to suffer through before finally sorting out their relationship.

Romantic comedies can receive big boosts from well-written supporting characters, and here a torrent of relationship cheerleading and jeering is added from the energetic sidelines. Chantry's cousin and Wallace's best friend Allan and his new girlfriend Nicole are interested observers when they are not sexually devouring each other; Chantry's sister Dalia is recovering from her own break-up and targeting Wallace as the perfect rebound; and Wallace's sister Tabby (Meghan Heffern), a single mom, leans on him for informative babysitting sessions.

The friendship prospects both jump to life and are threatened with evolution from the very first meeting between Wallace and Chantry. The F Word confirms the obvious, but with bittersweet congeniality.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.