Written by: Aaron Schimberg
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson, C. Mason Wells, Owen Kline
Rating: [3/5]
Every film carries a message it wants to convey to its audience, with the substance of that message carrying varying levels of quality. A message, nonetheless, gets communicated across in a subtle or outright manner. We can come to expect this, but the delivery does matter, and while A Different Man carries a valuable message at its core, it sure enjoyed pummeling the audience with it to the point it never felt like ending.
Socially awkward Edward (Sebastian Stan) lives with neurofibromatosis, which distorts his face. He elects to undergo a new treatment that should remove this from his face, and when he does, he decides to leave his old identity behind in order to live like someone new with a conventional face. This, unfortunately, does not go completely to plan as he begins to mentally deteriorate when he witnesses someone else with the same condition living with a confidence he never had.
The central message in A Different Man is the old adage of “it’s what’s on the inside that matters.” A classic lesson that many tales over the years have utilized in displaying how one’s physical attributes do not defy the person but rather their personality and the way they treat others. This film plays out exactly as one would anticipate when looking at the journey of Edward, as an ugliness he held from the inside gets exposed when he no longer has anything inhibiting him from displaying this distasteful persona. A strong message to give for a film like this, which makes me hold appreciation for it However, never has a film beaten its message into the audience’s head so much throughout its narrative to such an exhausting degree that it left me liking it less and less until we mercifully reached the conclusion.
That very much summarizes my feelings of this film. It built this great story and reached such great heights, but it peaked far too early, and the narrative just kept going and remained relentlessly repetitive, unfortunately demonstrating this thing ran out of gas. It begs the question of whether it would have worked much better as a short, seeing as stretching this out into a feature-length film ensured it overstayed its welcome.
For all of that negativity, there’s still plenty to enjoy in A Different Man, and overall I still land positively on it, precisely because of this central message. Edward’s journey serves as this cautionary tale of the lesson about what’s inside mattering more. Before the neurofibromatosis, he had this meek personality that demanded sympathy, given how much our society lacks sensitivity around individuals who have facial deformities. It makes this drug’s success life-changing for him, as he not only does not need to contend with having something that will make others uneasy when they view his face, but under all of that he also has the handsome face of Sebastian Stan. Quite the turnaround for this guy. It all does begin to fall apart for him, however, when he simply cannot focus when Oswald (Adam Pearson), someone with the same condition who has not had it removed, lives without shame of his deformity and everyone loves him for it.
One can understand why this revelation would make him feel so disheartened given the fact he could not conjure the same affection from people while having the same deformity. It holds a mirror up to him to ponder why he could not muster the same confidence before it all, and he truly cannot handle it. This mental descent then begins the fall in quality of the film as the film becomes one-note in this self-destructive run Edward goes on that feels never-ending and exhaustive. We had a good thing here, but its final execution left much to be desired.
Knowing how to tie up a story requires skill, and it was certainly not properly administered when reaching the conclusion of A Different Man. It went from a film I was loving early on to just barely liking by the end of it, demonstrating its third act as, by far, its weakest element. All that said, it certainly provides plenty to appreciate, including fine performances by the principal cast of Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson. Each of them plays their roles out well, especially Stan as Edward goes down this terrible descent. All in all, a fine film that could have been much better.
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