"A Different Man", the exploracion of Roxette's biggest hit: "The Look"

Sebastian Stan took as his personal goal to proof he is a really good actor this 2024, and A Different Man is his second way of prooving it. Under a sh*t-load of prostetics and makeup, comedy and heartbreaking scenes there is something truly worth watching.

Edward (Sebastian Stan) is a guy who has this condition that deforms his face and does commercials about embracing disabilities and those who look different. But, his new neighbour Ingrid (Renate Reinsve) is a playwritter who treats him fairly normal, making him fell in love with her, at the same time that he starts an experimental procedure that promises to "cure" his condition. With his new superhero face he says Edward is dead and creates a whole new persona, until he sees Ingrid in the street and follows her to a theater where she is putting on scene a play based on her experiences with Edward. Guy, as he calls himself now, get the part and starts having a romantic relationship with Ingrid, but one day in a rehersal appears Oswald (Adam Pearson ), a very charismatic and desfigured man, who little by little starts to take Edward/Guy's life.

Great movie. Very funny if you can understand is a dark comedy, and a pretty dramatic, dense and sad character examination, and this both aspects can exist together. It is a pretty solid experience, no one-notted, is an emotional rollercoaster. For this, Sebastian Stan takes out his d*ck (sorry, his acting skills) and smack you in your sensibility with it. The way his corporality changes, with and without the prostethics, is almost like a Clark Kent/Superman dicotomy. His character in reality are two, Edward and Guy, and each one has a stablished personality, way of talking and corporality, but sometimes Stan needs to mix them, or interpret one of this playing the other. It is mesmerizing to watch him go from crying out loud in his bed to a cronenberguesque scene, and to end in a party, lighthearted and ridicoulus moment.

The other interprets also do their job appropiately, but they do end outshinned. Reinsve is a lovable and fake girl that, as many men have experienced, you end up wanting to be in a relationship with her even if it cost yourself. Oswald, whose name I decided to assume is a reference to the Penguin from Gotham City, is absurdibly nice, comprehensive and caring, but because of the perspective the movie in narrated you end up finding him as the biggest son of a b*tch. Michael Shannon's cameo is a funny and enjoyable nod that makes you point to the screen as DiCaprio does.

The cinematography and production design is pretty naturalistic, completely functional and fulfills their porpuses, even when it is forgetable once you step out of the theater. Yet, the use of medical imaging and lights all over chatacters face as a leit motif is fitting for the movie. Also, the way camera moves, mixing some long, symetrical and cared shots with others with shakey and imperfect movings help to transmit different feelings on different scenes. There is also one long POV shot of something amazingly surprising, that just stays on that shot, but when it cuts to the counter-shot the surprise in everyones corporality mirrors your own in a way that makes you feel as part of the fiction; a simple, yet great and memorable staging, direction and montage that, even with it being an almost un-impactful and unstylized scene, it is the most memorable.

Even with all its well deserved praise, there are some minor issues that become hard to ignore. Even with the deep emotional character exploration, the theme of appearence is addressed in a very simplistic way, almost touching the infantiloid. Kind of: you are just victimizing yourself, embrace yourself and everything will come by its own. Probably has some true to it, but it is the lesson of an educational short animated video that you put to patch the time of your exposition in your filling middle school class. There is also the idea of pretty privilege, again not in a very deep nor smart way.

Yet, there is some intersting implication that the film just treats as a joke, that makes Edward a pathetic character, and it is that Oswalt practically robs his life and, eventually, his identity. Yes, is a funny and pathetic the scene in which this is more clearly stablished, but in retrospective it is a heartbreaking feeling. It is similar to Dream Scenario, where the main character is rejected and suffers aggression because of what other people are thinking of him, that he does not have any way of changing it, and also is ment to be just funny and pathetic; of course it is, but even the director in its interviews seems to not realize the messagge this part of his movie sends. The same happens here, there is also some unconsciousness from the director in transmitting that some people, not even depending on their looks, are just always meant to be treated poorly and aggressively because of who they are and there is nothing wrong about it. That is a really intersting theme, with a lot more nuance, and more original than the third grade metaphor the director is going for here.

Even with its wanna-be-deep topic that occured to a twelve-years-old, it is a pretty d*mn good, dramatic and funny character exploration. With one of the most brutal interpretations of the year, a solid premise and a couple of truly amazing moments, A Different Man is a very attractive option to go watch in the actual deform cinematic landscape.