After undergoing a miraculous operation to treat neurofibromatosis, Edward (Sebastian Stan) meets a charming man (Adam Pearson) who suffers from the same condition.
It’s no secret that the world has a narrow view of what is beautiful. It is on screens, in pictures, and in the judgmental gaze of every passerby. The other is seen as brutality. In Aaron Shimberg’s A Different Man, the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is excavated and complicated in a darkly funny satire about what it means to be attractive, inside and out.
Edward (Sebastian Stan) is a New York actor suffering from neurofibromatosis, a condition that manifests in large facial tumors, which means the parties he books amount to corporate training videos about treating disabled co-workers with respect. Then things seem to turn around for him: playwright Ingrid (Renate Rensef) moves in next door, and she seems to take an interest in him. Later, he was offered the opportunity to participate in an experimental drug trial that promised to cure his disease.
Adam Pearson delivers a riveting, star-making role.
One minute his face is literally peeling off — done in an amazing, sick way thanks to some disgusting prosthetics — and the next, he’s got the look of a handsome Sebastian Stan. Not a bad trade, but no amount of science can fix what’s inside. Edward can barely hold a conversation, and he’s still the same loser he’s always been.
When Ingrid writes a play based in part on her relationship with Edward, Oswald (Adam Pearson) enters the picture as the star — and Edward’s daily tormentor. He also has neurofibromatosis, but he feels confident and feels none of the self-pity that Edwards clings to. Shimberg’s deft screenplay risks tying itself in knots around thorny questions of representation (is casting an actor with physical deformities exploitative? Is portraying them as victims degrading?), but A Different Man doesn’t seek to provide answers. Above all, it is about the sheer breadth of humanity. A person with neurofibromatosis can be as charismatic as Oswald, or as uninteresting as Edward.
Stan doesn’t let the makeup do all the heavy lifting in Edward’s transformation, instead cleverly changing his voice and posture to illustrate his character’s increasing selfishness. But it’s Pearson (previously known for his appearance in Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin) who delivers a riveting, star-making role. Shimberg wrote “A Different Man” specifically for the actor, after working with him on the 2019 film Chained For Life, hoping to create a character as vibrant as himself. Pearson excels at playing the guy you really think is going to do yoga in the park, kill it at karaoke, and charm every woman in town. Perhaps the greatest tragedy that has resulted from this is that we are only now learning that its potential went unfulfilled for a long time.
Come for this clever satire of Sebastian Stan’s radical transformation, beyond the prosthetics, but stick around for Adam Pearson’s brilliant performance as a bona fide star.
