Looking for a picture that’s different? Look no further than A DIFFERENT MAN.
With its shades of Dorian Grey and hint of Jekyll and Hyde, A DIFFERENT MAN is an audacious, accomplished and totally unpredictable thriller, with left of centre laughs, askew plotting and the palpable pulse of paranoia.
Aspiring actor Edward suffers from neurofibromatosis. His disfigurement makes him a figure of fear or unwanted attention. He lives in a dingy apartment and there’s not much light shining on his chosen career.
Then a Norwegian girl, Ingrid, moves into his apartment block and a friendship evolves. She’s an aspiring playwright, mysterious and alluring, forthright and flirtatious.
At the suggestion of his doctor, Edward undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. Bizarrely, but tellingly, his new dream face puts him on a new trajectory as a successful real estate agent. But his desire to act draws him back into the orbit of Ingrid, who has written a play about their early days.
Now going by the name of Guy, Edward auditions for this role of a lifetime, a role he believes he is the only person on earth who could possibly understand.
Enter the film’s astonishing third character, the man who propels the story into more complex and layered territory, into a slyly captivating hall of mirrors, one reflecting upon another: Oswald, another actor with the same condition, yet one so strikingly confident, talented, and authentically himself, he quickly and unequivocally steals Edward’s thunder and the role, becoming a beloved star in the process, leaving Guy in a brooding crisis that spins out of control.
This macabre film is all about difference and disability, charisma and charm, wrapped in an idiosyncratic atmosphere, with delicious twists and turns that retro-engineer the roots of facial prejudice
Sebastian Stan is brilliant as Edward/Guy, a quick succession star turn after his recent interpretation of Donald Trump in The Apprentice.
Adam Pearson, real life disability advocate declares his genial acting chops and Renate Reinsve is superb as the feisty, forthright Ingrid.
