Review: Sebastian Stan gives award-caliber performance as a struggling actor in 'A Different Man'

By Peter Travers

Talk about coming at you with both barrels. As the head-twisting, heart-piercing "A Different Man" hits theaters after a glorious debut at Sundance, audiences won't know what hit them or where to look first. My advice? Start with the two main actors.

Sebastian Stan, killing it next month as the young Donald Trump in "The Apprentice," is simply astounding as Edward, a struggling New York actor afflicted with neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic condition that caused benign tumors to grow on his face, restricting his acting opportunities to sensitivity-training videos.

After an experimental procedure -- you may want to close your eyes as clumps of skin fall off his face -- Edward emerges looking like -- who else? -- the hunky Stan. What to do? Edward fakes his own death and renames himself Guy, to stroke his latent vanity and fire up his career.

Matt Infante/A24 via AP

This image released by A24 shows Sebastian Stan in a scene from "A Different Man."

Enter Adam Pearson, an actor born for real with the same facial scars that Stan is playing at, who is equally astounding as Oswald. It turns out Edward's neighbor, Ingrid ("The Worst Person in the World" breakout star Renate Reinsve), has written a play about the late Edward. It's the role of a lifetime, but how can Edward play it as pretty boy Guy?

Oswald, though, rightly considers himself a natural. And his personality charms everyone, way more than Edward/Guy, who has to hide behind a prosthetic mask to resemble his old self. What Edward can't hide is the gloomy, self-loathing introvert that lingers in his DNA.

See what writer-director director Aaron Schimberg is doing here? He's aiming satirical darts at perception and reality. He's also creating a teasing, dark comedy about how appearances screw all of us up, whether we see ourselves as a looker or a troll.

A24

A scene from "A Different Man."

There's also the timely question of cultural appropriation, which Ingrid blithely ignores to tell a personal story that is definitely not her own. Set to Umberto Smerilli's haunting score and wizardly camerawork from Wyatt Garfield, "A Different Man" is different in the best way possible: It keeps springing surprises that you don't see coming.

Schimberg juggles more ideas than he can comfortably fit into a single two-hour film. But his ambition and talent are worth celebrating, and his skill with actors commands attention.

Schimberg worked with Pearson in his most recent film, the probing "Chained for Life," and the British actor is even better this time as a man who won't let appearance define him. Pearson brings a captivating spirit and lightness of touch to the role that draws everyone in.

And Stan is just tremendous, giving an award-caliber performance as two sides of his character's personality go to war with each other for control. No spoilers, except to say that "A Different Man" is that rare kind of movie: a psychological thriller that can lift you up with laughter and crush you flat with tears. It's truly something else.