Edward is a man alone. He lives a solitary life in a decaying New York apartment with a rotting ceiling. He’s an actor on an industrial short, the kind new hires have to watch as part of their diversity, equity and inclusion training, and he doesn’t seem interested in engaging with his costars. He also doesn’t have friends, and his family is dead. Then, a beautiful playwright moves in next door, and Edward senses a connection but can’t overcome the barrier.
The barrier, Edward (Sebastian Stan) assumes, is his neurofibromatosis. When Edward looks in the mirror, all he sees looking back at him is a deformed face. That’s how most of the world sees him, sure, but not everyone. Edward suffers from many shortcomings, and superficiality certainly is one of them.
The neighbor, Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), is an energetic breath of fresh air in Edward’s life. He falls for her immediately, and she seems to reciprocate some of that affection. But Edward doesn’t seem interested in Ingrid the person, just Ingrid the effervescent beauty. Ingrid, in turn, is very interested in Edward the person, and that includes anything she might be able to mine for future plays.
But since Edward is in every scene of A Different Man, written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, it’s hard to tell if these scenes of playful attraction are rose-colored because they’re from Edward’s perspective or if Schimberg is playing them straight. More than once, something happens in the narrative that doesn’t make logical sense or impact the plot in any direct way.
At its heart, A Different Man is a twisty black comedy about not knowing yourself or the person standing next to you — maybe even the lack of an attempt to.
Case in point: Ingrid uses Edward’s plight for her breakthrough play while Edward undergoes a mysterious new treatment that makes his deformed face fall away and reveal the Sebastian Stan underneath.
Frankly, that’s all I really want to say. A Different Man is a delightful mash-up of sci-fi, body horror, screwball comedy, existential dread and one of the best plot twists I’ve seen all year. The twist involves Oswald (Adam Pearson), a charismatic man who also has neurofibromatosis, put upon this earth to upset every half-baked invention Edward can concoct.
Schimberg races through everything like an all-consuming fire. In other movies, previous players would return, loops would be closed and narrative strands would make sense. Not here. The director seems content to use a sci-fi plot device and discard it the second it serves its purpose. Ditto for characters: They come, they shine, they vanish. It leaves some loose threads — who is that woman Edward looks at in the penultimate shot? — but they’re not the kinds of loose threads you want to pull on. They’re more like the ratty ends that make the sweater look more loved, more lived in.
And through it all is lonely Edward, someone who wanted so badly to be different that he never stopped to consider whether he should try to be better.
ON SCREEN: A Different Man opens in theaters Oct. 4