Wenn ein Film mit dem Dreh einer Filmszene beginnt, braucht es für die Doppelbödigkeit einen guten Grund. Aaron Schirmberg hat ihn, denn sein Drama „A different Man“ handelt von Schönheit und Selbstwahrnehmung – und wo ist die besser zu finden als im grellen Scheinwerferlicht? So lehnt eingangs ein Mann mit stark deformiertem Gesicht an einer Bürowand und schreit. Der Laut klagt die Welt an. Ein Kollege öffnet die Tür und fragt, ob alles in Ordnung sei. Die Kamera zoomt heraus, entblößt die Szene als Werbeclipdreh, geworben wird für tolerantes Verhalten am Arbeitsplatz. Edward (Sebastian Stan), der Mann mit den hügeligen Gesichtszügen, erhält Regieanweisungen, sein Unwohlsein doch etwas gedimmter vorzubringen. „Ein Stöhnen genügt“, sagt der Regisseur – mehr Toleranz ist nicht drin.
Die Botschaft, die diese Aufforderung vermittelt, lebt Edward bereits: Er unterhält kaum Kontakte zu anderen Menschen und erträgt stumm, wenn er in der U-Bahn angestarrt wird. Nur den Traum von der Schauspielerei hat er noch nicht aufgegeben. Da sein Gesicht aber weit von gängigen Schönheitsnormen entfernt ist, bleiben die Rollenangebote aus. Als in die Wohnung neben seinem schäbigen Apartment die schöne Theaterstückeschreiberin Ingrid (Renate Reinsve) einzieht, schenkt er ihr seine Schreibmaschine und sagt im Scherz, sie solle ihm eine Rolle schreiben. Als eine experimentelle Therapie anschlägt, lösen sich nachts Klumpen von seinem Gesicht. Am Morgen blicken ihm makellose Züge im Spiegel entgegen. Für diesen ersten Teil der Geschichte bedient sich Regisseur Schimberg beim Cronenberg’schen Bodyhorror: Wenn Edwards Gesicht sich schmerzhaft häutet, wird das Matschen und Hautablösen explizit festgehalten.
The metamorphosis introduces jazz music that mixes with the atonal noise of the city at night: sirens wailing, car brakes screeching, drums pounding an unholy rhythm. Is a new life beginning, a new film? Schimberg just varies the tone, takes back the horror elements and lets the plot slide into dark, absurd humor, as we know it from Charlie Kaufman. However, where Kaufman's view of people and their actions creates social satire, Schimberg stays close to the twisted inner worlds of his characters. He is not interested in social circumstances, the past of the protagonists remains in the dark, as does what motivates their actions – in Schimberg's world, people act more out of impulses than out of considerations.
Of course, even with the flawless face, Edward can't get away from his obsessions. The beautiful neighbor who he adored before his therapy is now trying her hand at directing an off-Broadway theater. She wrote a play about meeting Edward, for which he is auditioning – with a mask that bears his former features. He manages to put his suffering, his doubts and his frustration into the role. And then someone shows up wearing his old face. This Oswald grabs the role and shows Edward what his life could have been. Oswald meets with a yoga group in the park, sings karaoke in bars, and flirts with women. People love him – and the more Edward sees this, the more desperate he becomes.
Another meta joke
Here, Schimberg continues the story in a variation that he already covered in “Chained for Life” 2019. There, a pretty actress was having trouble dealing with her disfigured co-star while filming an art house production. The main role was played by the Brit Adam Pearson, who suffers from neurofibromatosis, and the mask for Edward was made from his head. Pearson himself also returns to Schimberg as Oswald. In one scene he discusses with Stan whether someone with a physical disability might be better suited to play the disfigured lead – another meta joke.
As impressive as Pearson's performance is, it is Sebastian Stan in particular who shows once again how wide the range of his game is. Having become known as the brainwashed super soldier “Winter Soldier” in the Marvel movies, he was only offered supporting roles for many years until Iranian director Ali Abbasi gave him the lead role as a young Donald Trump in the biopic “The Apprentice” in 2024. Stan portrayed the unscrupulous entrepreneur's son in an impressively convincing manner, showing the obsession with power and the weaknesses that the real Trump wanted to have the film banned during the election campaign.
For the role of Edward in “A Different Man,” Stan descends further into the abyss of antiheroism. His Edward is a coward who slips into situations and hardly dares to do anything himself; someone who despises himself but blames his environment for it. Stan manages to show a bubbling beneath the surface that bubbles up ever larger and finally erupts into violence. At the film's premiere at the Berlinale, he received the Silver Bear for best actor. Without him, you wouldn't take some of the twists and turns of this plot seriously, but because he plays it, everything becomes bitterly true.
