‘A Different Man’ Review: Impressive Performances from Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson Highlight Aaron Schimberg’s Thought-Provoking Look at the Masks We All Wear | Sundance 2024

Edward (Sebastian Stan) lives a quiet life in an apartment building that’s falling apart. His face is highly disfigured, and while he acknowledges a childhood photo that indicates it’s not from birth, the circumstances of his condition are not revealed. Because he’s used to being ignored, he doesn’t act particularly swiftly on the worsening leak in his ceiling, and his latest gig is an acting role in a training video about inclusive behavior in the workplace. His lonely existence is brightened when he meets his gregarious new neighbor Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), an aspiring playwright. The two connect but a moment of intimacy turns things awkward. At the same time, Edward undergoes an experimental treatment to reconstruct his face, and the results are so good that even his doctor doesn’t recognize the man who answers the door when he comes to check in on his progress.

Adam Shimberg’s A Different Man tells a story of an unexpected and impossible change that also unmasks an unfortunate truth: that a complete makeover can’t change everything about a person. Once he sports a new face, the film takes on a decidedly fantastical nature from that point on, though the way Edward lets his neighbors walk all over him and act as if he doesn’t exist feels slightly absurd and exaggerated. As Edward assumes a new life, he finds himself drawn back to Ingrid, who has written a play about him, purporting to have invented the character but using exact dialogue from their conversations. Eager to play the part, he dons the mask that was given to him by his doctor to remind him of his pre-transformation appearance. The problem? Edward is upstaged by someone who has a similar face to the one he used to have, but seemingly none of the problems: the impossibly charming Oswald (Adam Pearson).

Casting the objectively good-looking Stan in the lead role is a gamble that could have doomed a weaker and less ambitious film. The actor, who embodied a different physical and energetic dynamic as Tommy Lee in the limited series Pam & Tommy, does impressively specific work to nail the character of Edward. The way he moves is distinct, and when he begins to (quite literally and somewhat nauseatingly) shed his skin, there is a discomfort that remains. He hasn’t suddenly gone from beast to prince, an apt reference given a prominent discussion within the film about Beauty and the Beast, but instead remains the same person wearing a new face, unaware of how to properly process his new transition. 

In his third feature film and his second collaboration with Pearson, filmmaker Aaron Schimberg casts a wide net in his filmmaking style. The movie passes through a handful of genres and often features rushed zooms, loud noises, and wild musical cues seemingly designed to alarm audiences and ensure that they’re truly paying attention. Much of what transpires is indeed quite funny, and just as much is cringe-worthy and uncomfortable to watch, both because of how Edward is treated by others and how he pivots so aggressively to seeking attention once no one is looking at him. None of the discomfort comes from having Stan in the lead role, since Schimberg emphasized that this was an effective experiment since he was able to cast both a “Hollywood actor” and someone with a much more authentic life experience who wouldn’t be wearing a prosthetic. 

It’s easy to laugh at some of the antics Edward endures that don’t have to do with his physical condition, like the way that he accepts the ever-widening hole in his ceiling which expels multiple objects, including a dead rat, and how hard he tries to make normal conversation with Ingrid. To her credit, she’s a flirtatious chatterbox who can more than make up for her partner’s relative silence. Reinsve follows up her breakthrough role in The Worst Person in the World with an astounding English-language debut, hopefully the first of many such parts since she’s extremely capable and immensely watchable.

The true star of this show, however, is Pearson. Oswald, whose name humorously leads a jealous Edward to bemoan that he shares the name of Lincoln’s assassin (wrong president), couldn’t possibly be real, constantly popping up in random places to drive Edward crazy and exuding nothing but genuine admiration for the man who wishes he could have been quite so beloved, either before or after his surgery. Pearson has endless charisma and plays exceptionally well with both his screen partners, and deserves a bright and prominent feature in film.

A Different Man boasts a moody, memorable score by Umberto Smerilli and some very potent clothing color choices early on to distinguish Edward and Ingrid when they first meet, with his dreary browns clashing with her bright yellows. As it goes on, however, it doesn’t seem to have a full sense of where it’s headed, and multiple scenes feel as if they could close the film before it finally wraps just short of two hours long. It remains a fascinating specimen, one that’s as weird as it is thought-provoking, a perfect choice for a distributor known to take chances on its content: A24.

Grade: B

A Different Man is playing in the Premieres section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by A24.