Monday, 24 October 2016

On Swiss Army Man

There may not be many more films as weird as Swiss Army Man. Yet, this weirdness slowly decreases as the film, with its creativity and inventiveness grows and the central metaphor becomes clear. The idea of loss manifesting themselves in a corpse that comes alive and offers just what is needed and just the right for the suicidal protagonist takes a while to warm up to, but soon becomes a heart warming and apt exploration of depression.

This is why the ending is so strange. We feel we understand the rules of the world that the Daniels’ have created, and as bizarre as they may be, they are adhered to and therefore make sense. So, when other characters appear at the end and the corpse remains more than just a corpse, the rules we thought we understood appear to have been broken, calling into question the preceding enjoyment.


Perhaps this is bathetic, perhaps there are no rules. Paul Dano’s performance is strong and holds the abstractness together and mostly Swiss Army Man works with moments that are beautiful and wonderfully imaginative.

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