We’ve probably all been in a situation where we have projected a gigantic amount of meaning on a stranger who doesn’t have the slightest idea who the hell we are. Maybe it’s the way their hair curls around their ear. Or the fact that their laugh fills a whole room. Clearly they were perfect. We take a moment later to get upset with ourselves… why didn’t we just say hello?
Swiss Army Man dwells on this part of ourselves, the part that wants to act on impulse, emotion, and delusion. (SPOILER ALERT) Farting and talking to that strange girl on the bus is our “authentic self” according to Swiss Army Man. But I’m not sure Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) got the memo; when you fart you are stinking up the noses of the people around you, and that girl on the bus has her nose in her book and would really rather just go home in peace. I’m not saying we should never allow ourselves a little room to fart in public and ask somebody out, just that sometimes acting on these gut feelings is inconsiderate to others. And unless you genuinely want to be inconsiderate to others, is that authentic at all?
My advice to corpse-like Manny is to take a moment for true self-exploration. True authenticity shouldn’t necessarily be about acting on our urges but trying to understand why we have them. Hank (Paul Dano) spends his whole life holding himself back and wishing he worked up the nerve to talk to Sarah (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). I feel like I would have to sit him down; “why are you so into this girl that you know next to nothing about?” If he’s being honest, it probably has something to do with the fact that she’s easy to project an ideal person onto. He thinks she can solve his emptiness. But in reality she probably picks her nose, has severe daddy issues, and will sometimes come home drunk and puke in your bed. That’s what being human is, and at the end of the day she is only that.
Romanticism in film plays this up all the time. Men are encouraged to look for the answers in a woman and women are encouraged to be the answer for a man.
Consider this: When Andrew gets Claire at the end of The Breakfast Club they leave out what happens next; his anger issues and her affluenza. The only reason Titanic is so romantic is because Leo died before he really had to deal with Rose’s emotional baggage. Harry and Sally were really probably better as friends.
When we consistently turn to films such as Swiss Army Man as examples of love and what that means we are allowing ourselves to believe in the impossible, and that’s going to leave us disappointed.
What are your thoughts?
Ponders Over Popcorn 