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DVD/DOWNLOAD of THE Week
Swiss Army Man (Cert 15, 97 mins)
Now on Amazon Video/bt TV Store/itunes/sky Store/ Talktalk TV Store and other download and streaming services. Available Monday, April 10, on DVD from £7.99/Blu-ray from £17.99 Starring: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Antonia Ribero
Hank (Paul Dano) has been marooned on an island and the isolation has driven him to the brink of suicide. As he prepares to tie a noose around his neck, Hank notices a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washed up on the shore. Approaching the body, Hank is disgusted to see that internal gases are being expelled as a constant stream of flatulence.
This sparks an ingenious idea and Hank uses this jet of noxious emission to turn the corpse into a makeshift jet ski and head to a new location. Hank discovers other ingenious uses for the corpse and he begins to imagine that his dead friend can talk. Adopting the name of Manny, the corpse becomes an unlikely companion and confidante to Hank as the loner attempts to re-establish contact with civilisation.
Swiss Army Man is a weird yet strangely wonderful buddy comedy written and directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who have a knack for macabre yet life-affirming detail. What begins as a fart gag writ large – the filmmakers luxuriate on close-ups of gas being expelled from Manny’s rear end – develops into a bittersweet meditation on loneliness and unrequited love, anchored by Dano’s affecting portrayal of a loner teetering on the brink of self-destruction. Radcliffe delivers an intentionally lifeless performance that tugs our heartstrings in fantastical sequences of a delusional Hank engaging in conversations with Manny. Swiss Army Man certainly won’t be to everyone’s tastes – the humour is often black as tar – but for those who appreciate a dark and twisted survey of the fractured male psyche, it’s a treat.