Released 2024. Director: Aaron Schimberg
EDWARD IS SHY, WITHDRAWN AND FRIENDLESS, A MAN WISHING he was different. After an experimental procedure gives Edward a new face, he turns his life around, becomes successful in a new career and women actually want to go to bed with him. He’s now a different man until he meets Oswald, who looks like his old self, only more confident, gregarious and contented. Edward finds himself with a severe case of buyer’s remorse about his new identity. Has he made a terrible and irreversible mistake?
If we take the above as a synopsis of A Different Man, it’s easy to treat it as a cautionary tale about “someone who doesn’t like the way he looks”, and that we should be comfortable in our own skin and not be vain and shallow about appearances, that our character and attitude count more than the features on our faces, blah, blah, blah… platitudes we’ve all heard a thousand times before.
Well, I’ve deliberately left out a crucial part of Edward’s story. He has a condition known as neurofibromatosis which causes severe disfigurement to the face. This brings a whole new dimension to the story. Now it’s not as simple as “I don’t like the way I look, so I had a procedure”. The mindset is much more complex than feeling unattractive, inferior, different.
Is the congenital condition holding Edward back in his aspiration to be an actor? Most certainly, as it markedly curtails his opportunities. Is it an obstacle to other career paths? Now that’s up for debate. Is it a cause of Edward’s social anxiety and inhibiting his life potentials? Yes for Edward, no for Oswald.
Edward, before the face-change, lives in a dingy apartment with a leaky roof. He has a crush on his new neighbour Ingrid, an aspiring playwright, but lacks the confidence to pursue their friendship. Months later when Guy -- that's Edward’s new persona with a new face, new address, new career and new life -- learns that Ingrid is putting on a play about a man with neurofibromatosis called Edward, he auditions for the part (wearing a face mask) and gets it. He’s now playing his old self without coming clean to Ingrid.
In comes Oswald, who volunteers advice on the role as someone who is living the condition. Outgoing, assertive, charming and not held back by the way he looks, Oswald is the opposite of Edward. Wherever he goes, Oswald is the life of the party and everyone adores him. Guy sees in Oswald what’s he’d always wanted. His regrets and ambivalence are further inflamed when Ingrid gives his role to Oswald, which leads to tragedy on stage, homicide and an ironic ending.
Being self-conscious about our appearance, slinking away and feeling inferior is a pretty normal part of life if you're an adolescent though for some people it can occur at any age. What I also find interesting about A Different Man is what it says about the perception of “fairness”, for lack of a better word. Guy/Edward feels that the scales is tipped in Oswald's favour. Why does Oswald get the role when he's not even an actor? Why is life so kind to him and not to me?
This mentality, to take it out of Guy's context and expand it generally, can apply to a variety of situations ranging from the incidental like perceived preferential treatment to consequential decisions like college enrolment to career opportunities. Why do some people get the better deal when we're basically the same (even more unfair when I was better, more qualified, worked harder, followed the rules...)?
Guy can't stop thinking about the chances he's been denied, endlessly comparing himself to Oswald, letting himself be controlled by a past he’s (perhaps mistakenly) happily let go of.
Director Aaron Schimberg leaves Sebastian Stan (when he’s playing Guy) in a state of perpetual self-inflicted torment and milks his self-pity for too long, all the way to an ending without carthasis. Instead of reinforcing the black comedy this begins to feel overwrought towards the end, like embellishing a joke when the punchline has been delivered. Thought-provoking, though it's hard to sympathise with someone who's pathologically hung up on his past when life has given him a new face and a fresh start.
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