Directed By Aaron Schimberg

Starring – Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson

The Plot – Aspiring actor Edward (Pearson) undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face (Stan) quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.

Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, adult language and some violent content.

A Different Man | Official Trailer HD | A24 (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Very few films expressing a positive message of reaffirmation have this level of self-deprecating humor, but I endlessly commend Schimberg for the confidence and resiliency in his experimental direction, which allow the film an imaginative exploration in the depths of being comfortable in your own skin that surrounds the psychology of our tethered protagonist. While not every aspect of experimentation works for Aaron and his film, this is the one element that kept me firmly invested in the dynamic of the movie’s many interactions, both with intrusively unpredictable moments during tender conversations, and exaggerated realities, that gave me quite an endearing consistency of effective laughter that felt like the single biggest moments when this film reached prominence. It helps that the humor doesn’t feel telegraphed or forcefully staged, with spontaneous deliveries that echo the unpredictable rhythms of life, but even beyond that, how it doesn’t ever truly take dominance on the focus of the movie’s execution, where stakes and circumstances legitimately materialize, despite Schimberg’s need to pit his protagonist in the proverbial ringer. As for the material amid that aforementioned message, the film has such a unique and observational insight towards reversed roles and politically correct perception that raises some interesting questions to audience interpretation, affording them ample substance to continuously chew on within a narrative full of tender vulnerabilities that ever refuses to make its protagonist revel in his remorse. It’s never anything that feels unexpected or unconventional thematically to the conflict that it’s unraveling, but does elicit clever ways of attaining those profound sentiments that occasionally sneak up on you, enriching the quality of the material with thought-provoking observations that feels like the inevitable conversation starter proceeding long after the film. To transition back to Schimberg once more, his energy doesn’t just find itself towards unconventional methods to tonally render the sharpness of the material, but also in the execution of his presentation, which enamored the experience with swift camera motions and daring transitions that proved some kind of palpable effort behind the scenes of this ambitious orchestration. Without purpose, these aspects could easily flounder the foundation with shallow relevance, but Schimberg uses them as necessities to elicit an atmospheric uneasiness to further conflict with Edward’s growing discontent about his daily experiences, and though Schimberg doesn’t go fully overboard on their usage, they still attain a firm notoriety among the consistency to the movie’s directional identity, proving that Schimberg has grown quite a bit as a master storyteller since the decade plus that has passed since his inconsistent debut ‘Go Down Death’. Lastly, I have to show love to the valuable balance in performances between Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson, who each initiated such a stark contrast towards two portrayals of the very same character. Pearson surprisingly takes a majority of the run time, rewarding our faith in his capabilities with endless charisma and intellectual radiance that serve as a much-needed boost to the dynamic between the movie’s uniquely contrasting love triangle, affording Pearson the fun and expressive side to characterization that is typically reserved for actors of a particular materialistic mold. As for Stan, I find his work here to be some of the most challenging of his entire career, with dimensions in emotional instability that made for such an unpredictable side to Edward’s demeanor, primarily when faced with the unsettling realities of his perception of life not being exactly what his character once interpreted. While it’s not quite as dark for Stan as his memorable turn as a cannibal psychopath in ‘Feast’, or as unrelenting as his work in ‘I,Tonya’, it is a different shade of grey for such a versatile actor, affording him devious experimentation in the depths of the characterization that prove his lifelong suffering.

NEGATIVES

As much as I wanted to love ‘A Different Man’, I’m left with conflicted feelings as a result of its inconsistent execution that kept me from fully investing to its narrative, taking a lot less from the experience than most people have been reported to experience. Firstly, I found certain aspects within the script to feel underdeveloped and even rushed, with the romance between Edward and his neighbor being the most apparent to the detriment of the storytelling. While the film takes ample time during the opening act to introduce them and elicit a connection between them, it never feels like anything more than a kink infatuation for Reinsve’s Kira, and because of such, I never felt the chemistry or radiance between their dynamic to elicit anything integral to the engagement, dragging down the pacing significantly during scenes focusing primarily on the movie’s romance. In addition to this, the film is strangely categorized as a comedy and thriller, and if this is in fact the case, it completely elevates one while abandoning the other, leaving this a psychological stinger with zero thrills to truly elevate the material. This could’ve afforded the periodically stagnant pacing a much-needed boost that it otherwise didn’t find in distinguished urgency, but unfortunately the story ultimately goes nowhere fast on its way to a climax that muddles its profound meaning with disjointed sequencing, resulting in a direct undercutting of the movie’s momentum during the third act that legitimately bored me. This is essentially my single biggest problem with the film, as the overall messiness from the script, particularly with editing off of sloppy editing, continuously exuded itself with scenes that felt like they were intentionally produced as confrontational, with the intention of obscuring audiences from the meaning of the overhead messages that they earned with some strange execution choices off of Schimberg’s direction. As previously commended, the comedy instills an appealing personality that proves its not above casually poking fun at its characters, but it ultimately becomes too self-indulgent by the film’s third act, where it begins to unravel the meaning in the message that it’s reaching for, but pulls too heavily on the dependency of comedic outlining that soils most of the sentiment from that attained knowledge. If Schimberg called upon some palpable drama during those closing moments, or even resolved the many free-flowing arcs towards attaining any semblance of satisfying resolution, then it would’ve been worth constantly persisting through the overlong sequencing in this storytelling, especially in its constant desire to elicit the surreal during moments that demanded humanity.

OVERALL
‘A Different Man’ is a uniquely cunning approach towards crippling ableism and social stigmas, particularly in the daringly originality of using self-deprecating humor to brandish the dreaded disposition of those deemed inferior by society. Despite this and a duo of complex performances from Stan and Pearson, the film’s appeal is ultimately undermined by questionable decisions within its storytelling that disappointingly underscore the value of key contributors, resulting in a sloppily overlong film that feels constantly at odds with the sincerity of its own message, leaving audiences feeling a bit disconnected in ways that will inevitably divide experiences.

My Grade: 6/10 or C