A Different Man

"Edward" (Sebastian Stan) is a facially disfigured man, stuck in a rundown apartment, whose life isn't really going anywhere fast. Then he gets a new neighbour. "Ingrid" (Renato Reinsve) is a writer who befriends him and promises him a part in her play. Meantime, his doctors manage to get him on a radical course of treatment that gradually returns his face to a more normal visage. Returning to his flat, and with some fairly grotesque things emerging from his leaky ceiling, he realises that nobody recognises him anymore so he has to assume a different identity. That's when he discovers that "In...

_A Different Man_ delights with a delicious paradox: take a character who feels outcast because of his looks, and then – _voila_. Melt away his differences. _Would he suddenly fit in? Would his life instantly turn around? Or is “success” far more than skin deep?_

New York writer-director Aaron Schimberg wants us to ponder if Edward is better off than he was before. We're caught between wondering if he's a victim of society’s need for normalcy – or a victim of _his own_ victim complex.

With his third feature, Schimberg creates a tantalising fantasy with oodles to say about perce...

Stories that allegorically address themes related to self-esteem, social acceptance and prejudice undoubtedly merit our attention, provided that they execute their narratives in discernable, cogent, relatable ways. Unfortunately, though, that’s where writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s third feature drops the ball. The film follows the strange saga of Edward Lemuel (Sebastian Stan), an aspiring New York actor afflicted with a severe skin disfigurement that has left his face overcome with tumorous growths. However, when he learns of a radical new medical treatment that offers the hope of a cu...

**A Different Man (2024)**

_Directed by Aaron Schimberg_

Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man announces its literary pedigree early, nodding to The Elephant Man and Cyrano de Bergerac (a clip plays on a TV screen, lest we miss the connection). But the true lineage, unacknowledged, is Hiroshi Teshigahara's The Face of Another (1966). Like that Japanese masterwork, Schimberg's film asks what happens when a man sheds his disfigured face, only to discover the prison was never external. The premise is solid, the comedy enjoyable, the performances committed; what's missing is the depth and creati...