A Different Man Review: Sebastian Stan Puts On His Best Face For A Dark Comedy That Feels Like Larry David’s The Elephant Man

The desire to change one’s less-than-perfect attributes has long been a staple for fictional plotting, and is at the heart of several 2024 features – such as Demi Moore’s body horror tour de force The Substance and Netflix’s YA novel adaptation Uglies. But no film, TV series or workplace instructional video has taken the concept to its most gloriously absurd lengths quite like Aaron Schimberg’s unwaveringly magnificent A Different Man.

“Beauty is only skin-deep” may not be the extent of the source material examined in A Different Man, but that idea is heavily explored through the character of Sebastian Stan’s Edward. An actor-in-training whose life and emotional state hinge entirely on his neurofibromatosis and the benign tumors covering his face, Edward appears to be a genuinely good person whose gifts and talents are largely ignored by those who can’t look beyond the surface.

That is, until two major catalysts collide and forever change Edward’s journey: he meets Renate Reinsve’s endlessly optimistic Ingrid, and he agrees to a new kind of surgical technique that somehow “cures” his neurofibromatosis in the gnarliest of ways. But in becoming more traditionally attractive, Edward essentially flips his mental state inside-out while adjusting to his new and successful life.

But it’s not until the movie introduces Oswald, as portrayed by real-life neurofibromatosis sufferer Adam Pearson, that Edward realizes just how far-removed he is from his former existence, even as he’s literally acting in a stage play that dramatizes the early days of his and Ingrid’s friendship. Oy, the road to success is pockmarked with questionable intentions.

A Different Man is far from the melodramatic tragedy that one might expect.

Without knowing very much about A Different Man’s approach, one could easily look at pictures and a logline and think that writer/director Aaron Schimberg had concocted a dramatic, Oscar-baiting story about someone overcoming a personal setback, on par with mishandled, treacly fluff such as I Am Sam. But that couldn’t be further from the self-reflective truth.

Even though this is a film that very much points out the rudely awkward and callous ways humans treat others who look different, often evoking innate guilt, A Different Man is not overtly intent on keeping audiences' emotions sided with Edward. Rather, we witness just how quickly Edward is able to fall into the same traps and pitfalls as the people who’d judged his appearance previously, while still grasping to maintain the founding facets of his prior identity.

This isn’t to say Schimberg tackles the subject distastefully in a way that the "dark comedy" label can suggest. He very clearly paints Stan’s Edward as a bumbling protagonist we can laugh with, not at, and it’s only after the character’s physical transformation that he becomes more genuinely victimized and targeted, albeit for good reasons. The film taps into genuine emotional turmoil at times, but thankfully keeps its drama floating far above melodramatic waters.

The warm moods and tones are also helped along by cinematographer Wyatt Garfield and Schimberg's choice to shoot the film in grainy 16mm, which speaks to the whole idea that something doesn't need to look pristine to be a treasure all the same.

Like Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David, Sebastian Stan’s Edward becomes an anti-protagonist you love to hate.

Beyond subversive humor similarities, many other parallels can be formed between A Different Man and certain iconic projects from David Lynch's dreamlike oeuvre, from the duality themes of Lost Highway and Twin Peaks to the outsider vibes of Eraserhead and The Elephant Man and beyond. I have no clue if that was intentional or not, but as a huge Lynch fan, I found it only added to my enjoyment and anticipation for each absurd moment in Edward's story.

Perhaps more so than any of David Lynch's characters, however, Sebastian Stan's Edward is a funhouse-mirror version of Larry David's hyperbolized reality in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's not an exact 1:1, since A Different Man's main character doesn't have an appalling and repellant personality from the jump, but morphs into something far closer as time goes by.

In focusing on a character who ensures their own downward spiral, Aaron Schimberg's script also delivers the same kind of full-circle storytelling that I will always appreciate in any genre. And having post-surgery Edward take on a play that tells his own story, but without others realizing who he really is, brilliantly utilizes meta-textual comedy similar to Curb Your Enthusiasm's callbacks to Seinfeld jokes, including the reunion season and the series finale.

Adam Pearson 100% steals the whole movie.

To be expected, Sebastian Stan is aces in all forms of the role of Edward, maintaining an authenticity throughout, and Renate Reinsve is also a joy to watch as Ingrid volleys between typical character choices and completely unexpected ones. The cast, which employs a variety of actors with physical deformities, shinse brightly throughout.

Appropriately enough, however, A Different Man hits its highest highs when Adam Pearson's Oswald is on the screen. The actor, whose career began in earnest with 2013's Under the Skin, went on to appear in specials that explored his diagnosis, as well as Schimberg's 2019 drama Chained for Life. His career will hopefully be as long and fruitful as possible, because this dude has all the charisma and then a little to spread around.

Upon entering Edward and Ingrid's lives out of the blue, Oswald could have easily come across as a more nefarious or malicious entity with literally another actor in the role. But not for a single second does Pearson let on that he's anything other than an aspiring performer, supportive friend, and lovely person. Whether he is or not is perhaps up to the audiences to weigh on, and for Edward to fret over.

A film that feels at times like a Denis Villeneuve psycho-thriller and at other times like the majestic apex of Mr. Show sketches, this is a must-watch movie that truly defies any and all of my comparisons with its singular nature. (What other awards-bound 2024 movie features a moment straight out of a Looney Tunes short?) There's no one else quite like Adam Pearson, and there's nothing else quite like the twisted hilarity of A Different Man.