{"id":2346533,"date":"2024-09-26T23:53:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T03:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-film-about-facing-yourself-review-of-a-different-man-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-09-26T23:58:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T03:58:36","slug":"a-film-about-facing-yourself-review-of-a-different-man-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/a-film-about-facing-yourself-review-of-a-different-man-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"A film about facing yourself: Review of A Different Man &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fa-film-about-facing-yourself-review-of-a-different-man-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2346533&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>**Summary of &#8220;A \u200bDifferent Man&#8221;\u200d Movie Review**<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A Different Man&#8221; is a darkly\u2064 comedic film directed\u200b by indie filmmaker Aaron Schimberg, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/meaningful-superhero-movies-like-the-flash-shine-amid-hollywoods-formulaic-film-overkill\/\" title=\"\u2018The Flash\u2019 and other meaningful superhero movies stand out amidst Hollywood\u2019s formulaic film overload.\">exploring themes<\/a> of\u200b identity and self-acceptance\u200b through its noir-inflected narrative. The story revolves around\u200d Edward, played\u2062 by Sebastian Stan, \u2062a man socially ostracized due to\u2064 neurofibromatosis,\u2062 which severely distorts his facial\u200b appearance. \u2062Living a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/megyn-kelly-nukes-keith-olbermann-after-he-slams-her-for-cheering-tucker-carlson-on\/\" title=\"Megyn Kelly Nukes Keith Olbermann After He Slams Her For Cheering Tucker Carlson On\">lonely life<\/a> in New York, he dreams of acting but faces constant\u2064 humiliation. \u2063His life \u2063takes a turn when he meets Ingrid, a beautiful \u2062and empathetic new neighbor who sparks his interest.<\/p>\n<p>Edward decides \u2063to\u200b undergo an experimental surgery that \u2062significantly\u2064 alters his\u200d appearance, allowing him to create a new identity. After the surgery, he\u2064 becomes handsome\u200d and successful, hiding \u2064his\u200c past from those around him. However,\u2064 when he encounters Ingrid again while following her to \u200ba casting call for\u2063 a play\u2063 that mirrors his own\u2063 experiences, \u200dhe grapples with his concealed identity and the arrival of Oswald, a\u2064 charming actor also living\u2063 with a \u2062facial\u200b disfigurement, threatening his newfound \u2064status.<\/p>\n<p>The film navigates the complexities of \u200cpersonal transformation and societal perception, blending humor with poignant reflections on the nature of beauty\u200c and acceptance. Despite its\u200b intriguing elements\u2063 and well-executed pacing, it ultimately raises questions about the costs of\u200b self-reinvention and the\u2063 pains of identity.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Magazine &#8211; Life &amp; Arts <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">A film about facing yourself: Review of A Different Man<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><em>A Different Man<\/em> is a noir-inflected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/comedy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>black comedy<\/a> about the adage, popularized by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/magazine-life-arts\/319095\/capote-and-his-swans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Truman Capote<\/a> and attributed to Teresa of &Aacute;vila, that more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones. Indie filmmaker Aaron Schimberg&rsquo;s third feature depicts an odd and volatile love triangle between two men with facial deformities and a woman who admires them both. The film is dazzling and dark fun even as it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/if-youre-not-indoctrinating-your-children-then-someone-else-is-allie-beth-stuckey-on-woke-education-entertainment-and-self-love\/\" title=\"\u2018If You\u2019re Not Indoctrinating Your Children, Then Someone Else Is\u2019: Allie Beth Stuckey On Woke Education, Entertainment, And \u2018Self Love\u2019\">ultimately fails<\/a> to live up to its full potential.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The protagonist is Edward (a strong Sebastian Stan in prosthetic makeup), a lonely youngish man who lives in a dilapidated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>New York<\/a> apartment building. Edward has neurofibromatosis, which causes tumors that have severely distorted his face and made him ashamed of how he looks. His daily life entails constant indignity. Strangers startle and recoil when they see him or, conversely, feel entitled to a presumptuous familiarity &mdash; cornering him in bars to ask questions about his condition, lecturing him in hallways about maintaining a positive outlook, and the like.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sebastian Stan, left, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson in the movie A Different Man. (Matt Infante\/A24)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Edward is interested in acting, but his experience has been limited to portraying disabled co-workers in corporate sensitivity training videos. The whole universe, including inanimate objects, seems determined to humiliate and relegate him to his already very cloistered existence. When he tries to fix a water leak in his apartment ceiling, a dead rat falls on him. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-suspected-gunman-barricades-location-after-being-cornered-by-authorities-multiple-hostages-taken\/\" title=\"Breaking News: Alleged Shooter Holds Hostages, Secures Area Amid Police Standoff\">life abruptly<\/a> changes when a new neighbor named Ingrid (Renate Reinsve, a Norwegian actress best known for 2021&rsquo;s <em>The Worst Person in the World<\/em>) moves into his building. Ingrid, an aspiring writer, is friendly and beautiful and takes a kindly interest in Edward. He&rsquo;s soon completely smitten, but he doesn&rsquo;t dare to believe he would ever have a shot with her. His doctors, however, tell him of an experimental <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>surgery<\/a> that might be able to heal his condition permanently and give him a &ldquo;normal&rdquo; appearance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Edward elects to try the surgery. Over several days, chunks of flesh fall from his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-back-on-defense-after-bidens-exit-brings-a-harris-surge-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"GOP back on defense after Biden&#039;s exit brings a Harris surge - Washington Examiner\">face &#038;mdash<\/a>; a process the film depicts with a David Cronenberg-esque relish for body horror, a not-so-subtle suggestion that this transformation is the real grotesquery. In a conventional sci-fi or thriller film, the surgery would go disastrously wrong. Here, the surgery works. It succeeds, in fact, beyond Edward&rsquo;s wildest dreams, revealing a man who is not only &ldquo;normal&rdquo; looking but quite handsome. He makes an impulsive and fateful decision: Without telling Ingrid or anyone else, he disappears from his apartment and allows the world to believe that he has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/death\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>died<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Flash forward in time. Edward has a new name, a successful new career, girlfriends, and a fancy loft apartment. One day, he is walking through New York when he spies Ingrid. He follows her to an off-Broadway theater, where she is holding a casting call for a play that sounds suspiciously like it&rsquo;s about Edward. He asks Ingrid, who doesn&rsquo;t recognize him, to let him read for the main part. He knocks it out of the park, with everyone impressed at his ability somehow to ventriloquize the experience of a disabled and disfigured man.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then comes the second irony. An actor named Oswald turns up. Oswald (played with panache by Adam Pearson, a British actor and campaigner with neurofibromatosis who worked with Schimberg on his previous film, 2019&rsquo;s <em>Chained for Life<\/em>) has a facial disfigurement. He&rsquo;s also charismatic and charming, a mensch who is the life of every room, and he is at ease with his illness in a way Edward never was. Ingrid and the theater crew start wondering if it would be better to do their play with someone who has actually lived with the disability. Edward, in <em>All About Eve <\/em>style, feels threatened &mdash; but can&rsquo;t bring himself to admit his secret.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>A Different Man<\/em> is well-paced, shot through with a certain grimy New York authenticity, and extremely funny. One wry running gag involves people telling Edward his new name, Guy, sounds made up, and another concerns his inability to pull off a convincing British accent. (There&rsquo;s also an implication that Ingrid&rsquo;s artistic altruism is really just a sublimated fetish.) Schimberg&rsquo;s zest for irony and double identities recalls some of Billy Wilder and a lot of Charlie Kaufman, who in films such as <em>Being John Malkovich<\/em> (1999), <em>Adaptation<\/em> (2002), and <em>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind <\/em>(2004) has explored twists and turns arising from similarly clever premises. Edward&rsquo;s predicament put me in mind of <em>Adaptation<\/em>&rsquo;<em>s<\/em> neurotic and self-loathing screenwriter protagonist played by Nicolas Cage, who gets mired in a hopelessly convoluted script while his happy-go-lucky twin brother wins everyone over with his cheesy ideas.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As Edward&rsquo;s frustrations mount, his behavior becomes increasingly erratic. So does <em>A Different Man<\/em>, in a sense. Where its first two acts are basically faultless &mdash; you might assign them to students in a screenwriting seminar &mdash; problems start in the final stretch. Some of these are plot holes or questions of character motivation that make it harder to suspend disbelief: Why doesn&rsquo;t Edward just confess his real identity to Ingrid once the new dynamic becomes clear? And why do Ingrid and Oswald tolerate Edward even as his behavior becomes more and more unhinged?<\/p>\n<p>The real and larger problem, I think, is that the story seems too content with milking Edward&rsquo;s upstaging by Oswald for every possible darkly comic note without advancing the story or ideas further or allowing the comedy to take a backseat to a climax of real human drama, as a more typical dramedy would. This makes the film&rsquo;s third act feel a bit repetitive and sputtering, as well as simply mean-spirited. The film is, nonetheless, one of the more original and exciting I&rsquo;ve seen in a long time.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>J. Oliver Conroy&rsquo;s writing has been published in the <\/em>Guardian<em>, <\/em>New York <em>magazine, the <\/em>Spectator<em>, the <\/em>New Criterion<em>, and other publications.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Different Man: A noir black comedy exploring identity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3130,"featured_media":2346535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/DifferentMan_100224.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[41823,36241,37306,26079,32076],"class_list":["post-2346533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-a-different-man","tag-film-review","tag-movie-critique","tag-self-discovery","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/DifferentMan_100224.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2346533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2346535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2346533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2346533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2346533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}