Lonely, depressed Edward Stan has neurofibromatosis, struggling to land acting jobs in New York as a result. His new neighbour is the beautiful Ingrid Reinsve , a budding playwright whose warm feelings for him appear to be only platonic. Now calling himself Guy, and informing acquaintances that Edward committed suicide, he happily plots his new existence. Schimberg, whose comedy Chained For Life also starred Pearson, has delivered a nervy premise that avoids predictably patronising pleas for tolerance.
Instead, the writer-director sharply critiques an insecure, self-pitying actor who comes to understand that changing his face really does not change anything at all. Edward initially enjoys life as Guy — the random hookups, a killer job as a slick real-estate agent — but when he later sees Ingrid on the streets, he follows her and discovers that she has written a heartbreaking play about him, called Edward , that borrows heavily from their friendship.
Are they inherently exploitative? Insultingly patronising? Can someone without the condition ever fully appreciate what it is like to have neurofibromatosis?
Rather than being coyly meta about these questions, A Different Man dissects them with intelligence and humour. But when Pearson arrives, he explodes them, depicting Oswald as a confident, funny man, which shocks Edward now going as Guy , who learns too late that his insecurity held him back — not his neurofibromatosis.
In the later reels, Schimberg sends the film down a dark, bitterly ironic path, consistently confronting our preconceived notions about attraction, beauty and the need to be truly seen.
