My take on "Swiss Army Man"

 

"Swiss Army Man" follows main protagonist Hank. We meet Hank on a deserted island by a rocky cliff during his attempt at suicide. It's clear that Hank doesn't want to but feels that he has no other choice, that is, until he glances up and sees a body washed up on the shore. 

Hank runs to the body and realizes that the man is dead. Down on his luck, Hank decides to re-attempt suicide until the body begins shaking and farting uncontrollably. 

Hank then decides to ride the body like a motorboat to begin the most ridiculous plot I've ever witnessed. 

I find it hard to explain what happens throughout the film since it all feels like a giant fever dream. "Swiss Army Man", in my opinion, is the kind of film that you have to watch more than once to be able to thoroughly dissect the deeper theme or moral of the plot. With that being said, I can't say that I fully "got" what the deeper meaning of the film was. 

I know that there is a deeper meaning when it comes to the relationship between Hank and Manny. I believe that Hank uses his time with Manny as means to understand his own life and reflecting on his past by explaining very mundane things to Manny throughout the film. Since Manny is a talking corpse he doesn't know anything, so by using creative measures to help Manny to understand ideas like love and life Hank is also learning about to world through the process. 

This message of the film sat well with me, until we reached the end of the film.

During the final act we find out that the "deserted island" the Hank and Manny were on was just the beach and forest outside of the town that Hank is from. We also see that the woman that Hank has as his phone lock screen is just a random woman that he's seen on the bus and has imagined his life with, even though she is married with a child and has never met Hank before.

The movie was just slightly disturbing at times, but also heartfelt during others. I definitely think I'll rewatch it at some point to really analyze it some more, bit for now my rating will stand at 6.5/10.