When Edward Lemuel (Sebastian Stan) a painfully shy and socially awkward struggling actor with a face horribly disfigured with neurofiromatosis is giving a miracle cure that cures him overnight of his hideous visage and turns him into Sebastian Stan he does what anyone would do. He tells everyone that Edward is dead and embarks on a new life, as his own cousin called Guy, then quickly becomes a successful real-estate brooker. The trouble is that he soon begins to find life as a handsome man almost as difficult as being hideous, and when his old next-door neighbour, writer Ingrid (Renate Reinsve) writes an Off-Broadway play about the old him called Edward, his grip on reality begins to slip, especially when he wins an audition to play himself in the play and then becomes friends with a young British man called Oswald who also has Neurofiromatosis. And then begins a relationship with Ingrid, one he couldn't do when he was Edward. From then on things start getting really crazy as life, as Guy/Edward knows it spirals out of his control leading to a confrontation during a perfomance of Edward that is crushingly funny that in turns leads us to an ending that's both sad, poignant and funny.
A very hard film to synopsis and do justice to, this is a terrific film, very funny, blackly so and featuring some excellent acting from the three main leads, Stan, Reinsve and Pearson. It's by turns, sad, touching, profound and very funny and I loved it! The ideas behind it are brilliant handled, Guy's difficulty in seeing Oswald easily interact and befriend people with a face far more disfigured than his own was is fascinating and Sebastain Shaw, a man known for playing Bucky in the MCU is exceptionally good in the film bringing an awkwardness and despair to the role. Adam Pearson in what is only is second film is fantastically good and makes Oswald a brilliantly loud and over top character with no guile. Similarly, Renate Reinsve as Ingrid, Edward's next-door-neighbour is wonderful as the young confident author growing stronger with each encounter. The three relationships as they intertwine are superbly explored and this film never lags or disappoints.
Well directed by Aaron Schimberg who also wrote this stunning film, A Different Man is a unique, brilliant, funny and highly entertaining little movie and I urge you to see it! You'll not have see anything quite like it before.
9/10
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