“A Different Man” isn’t a fairytale, but a black comedy horror film where the beast becomes more beautiful, but doesn’t get the girl. Directed and written by Aaron Schimberg, the film follows a man whose medical salvation doesn’t really save him.

Schimberg’s film moves quickly. It begins with Edward Lemuel (Sebastian Stan) whose main acting jobs are instructional videos on how to treat people with disabilities. Edward is their poster boy because neurofibromastosis has disfigured his face with massive bumps and even the bumps have bumps. When a friendly but attractive aspiring playwright Ingrid Vold (Renate Reinsve) moves into the apartment next door he has feelings for her, but hesitates to show his romantic inclinations because of two complications: He’s part of an experimental medical treatment which causes his skin to slough off and Ingrid seems to have a boyfriend. As part of the medical treatment, to keep track of changes and progress, the team makes and gives Edward of mask.

Due to the medical treatment, his bumps begin to peel off and eventually we have a normal looking, slightly nerdy guy. He declares that Edward committed suicide and assumes a new persona: Guy Moratz. Flash forward, Guy is a wildly successful real estate agent and seems happy enough until he meet Ingrid again. Ingrid is casting an off-Broadway play, “Edward,” based on her old neighbor. Although Guy dons a mask of his old face and does state that he is “Edward” during the audition, he  becomes Guy once the mask is off. Ingrid and he become an item although Ingrid warns him that she has “so many jilted lovers. I leave a trail of tragedy in my wake.”

Another man with neurofibromastosis, Oswald (London-born Adam Pearson), drops by. He’s not an actor, but he’s the real deal. While he sees Guy has taken the part, he leaves, but later Ingrid asks Guy to put on his mask to arouse her.  Ingrid laughs at him and as the play progresses, Guy takes exception to how he as Edward is being portrayed.

Osward is chatty and he has a lovely English accent which charms Ingrid. Oswald, not Guy, is able to convince Ingrid that her characterization of Edward is too passive, too much of a victim. There are other problems–the prosthetics that are going to be used. The mask and the makeup don’t work and Ingrid decides, Edward was the role Oswald was meant to play. Oswald makes a better Edward than the real Edward. And Guy, attempting to recapture Edward, can’t be Guy in Guy’s life.

Stan’s Guy loses his sense of reality, becoming increasingly unsure of himself. Who are you if you can’t play yourself in your own story? It’s a credit to Stan that we can see how he is a glum second choice to Pearson’s lively Oswald. Of course, the London accent helps if you’re an Anglophile. Casting Pearson lends gravitas to the film. We are asked to see people who live with the faces that deviate from the norm. We are what people see us as and also who we see ourselves as. Is there a happy ending? You’ll have to decide, but I think Edward may have dodged a bullet.

“A Different Man” premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It was released in the US on 20 September 2024.