The idea of having a doppelganger replace us has been around for ages, at least since Dostoevsky wrote his famous novel, The Double, possibly even earlier. Great films like The Machinist, Fight Club, Enemy, Stranger Than Fiction and Infernal Affairs have all taken inspiration from the source. It's hard, though, to imagine it being done with more verve and ridiculousness than in Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man. This film is a treat. It stars Sebastian Stan as Edward, who has a form of neurofibromatosis (a condition that affects the nervous system), which causes his face to swell up in lumpy tumours. Early on, he meets a new neighbour, Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), and they become close friends, bonding over their shared passion for the theatre - he's a struggling actor, she's a hopeful playwright.
Partially due to this new relationship (and maybe the hope of furthering it), partly due to fatigue at his 'abnormal' life, Edward decides to try an experimental new drug that promises to remove the tumours. As the treatment starts to take effect, Edward, makes the decision to cut ties with his previous self. A new man (looking like Stan) appears - he gets a good job, a nice apartment, even a blozza in a pub toilet. Things are going well until he spots Ingrid going into a small theatre. It turns out she has penned a play all about her time living next door to Edward, the old Edward, of course. New Edward (now going by the name Guy), still keen to act and feeling like he OWNS the role, auditions for it, first as himself, later with a prosthetic face returning him to his old look.
Here's where the film kicks into another gear. Ingrid obviously doesn't recognise Edward but goes along with the casting. Then a man named Oswald turns up at the theatre one day. Oswald is played by Adam Pearson, who actually has neurofibromatosis, and he's invited to advise on the script and Edward's performance. Everyone loves Oswald, he's a charming English chappy who seems to have many strings to his bow - Ingrid, impressed, asks "What CAN'T you do?" Oswald replies that he can't whistle, to much hilarity. The focus of attention increasingly shifts from Edward to Oswald, almost causing a meltdown in Edward at a karaoke session where Oswald sings 'I Wanna Get Next to You'. Stan is amazing in this film, and his curdling hatred of Oswald in this scene is particularly priceless.
A Different Man is very funny (the Lincoln assassination gag's a highlight) and it has a fine 70s aesthetic, with dodgy zooms, grainy film stock and snatches of Hammer-style horror music on the soundtrack. It's packed with weird moments. What falls out of the hole in the ceiling? What is Edward looking at over people's shoulders? Who was the old guy in the bar? All probably explicable for someone with more literary knowledge than me. Oh, and I nearly forgot about a brilliantly unexpected cameo.
I feel, if anything marks it down, that it got a little rushed, but loose at the same time in the final furlong. I think it had its natural ending a bit earlier, around the stage invasion scene. Regardless, Stan, Pearson and Reinsve (in her English language debut, no less) are superb, and there is one excellent monologue from some dude at a bar which virtually sums up the film's ethos. Edward never responds verbally but this guy just continues with the 'conversation'. A quality scene in a cracking film.
A Different Man opens at Luna and Palace cinemas Oct 24th.
See also:
I haven't seen the Richard Ayoade film The Double (2013) but it probably illustrates the concept as well as any of the others mentioned above. On that, Denis Villeneuve's Enemy (also 2013) is exceptional.
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