“A Different Man”, which won the Best Picture award at the Gotham Awards ceremony a few months ago, is often quite amusing as cheerfully exploring the issues of identity and appearance. After patiently building up its comic momentum during the first half, the movie is unexpectedly absurd and hilarious at times during its second half, and a number of humorous moments will surely make you more reflect on whether we are defined more by appearance or personality.

At the beginning, we meet Edward (Sebastian Stan), a struggling New York city actor whose face is considerably disfigured due to neurofibromatosis. He is recently hired along with a bunch of other disfigured people for the production of some educational video, but he usually does not feel that right about himself, and he understandably hesitates a lot when he happens to befriend Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), one of the neighbors in his apartment building who is incidentally an aspiring off-Broadway playwright.

However, there comes an unexpected opportunity which may change Edward’s life. He happens to participate in the clinical test of some new drug which seems to alleviate his current medical condition, and he initially does not expect much, but, what do you know, this drug in question turns out to be as amazing as, say, that drug in Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” (2024). After going through a brief moment of body horror, Edward’s old face is gone, and now he looks as dashing as the actor playing him.

Once its hero finds how things become different around him thanks to his new face, the movie moves forward to some time later. After completely leaving his old life behind, Edward is now working as a real estate salesman named “Guy” (Is this actually a nod to the actor’s other recent performance in Ali Abbassi’s “The Apprentice” (2024), I wonder?), and he looks much less socially awkward than before in addition to being quite successful in his job.

On one day, Edward comes across the audition for the lead role in the off-Broadway production of the latest play written by Ingrid, which is simply titled “Edward”. Needless to say, this play of hers is based a lot on Edward’s old self, so Edward decides to apply for the audition with a mask modeled after his old face at the beginning of that clinical test, and what do you know, he eventually gets the part thanks to his newly gained confidence.

As Edward subsequently collaborates with Ingrid during next several weeks, they become closer to each other than expected, but, of course, things become a bit more complicated than expected. While Edward is still hiding his old secret from Ingrid, Ingrid becomes more serious about her play, and she cannot help but wonder whether she should be more sensitive and thoughtful about her play. For example, shouldn’t she have cast a real disfigured guy instead as she intended from the very beginning, instead of casting a non-disfigured guy like “Guy”?

Around that narrative point, another unexpected thing happens in the story. When a disfigured guy named Oswald (Adam Pearson) comes to the ongoing rehearsal, he immediately draws the attention of Ingrid, and Edward comes to befriend Oswald when they happen to encounter each other again at a local bar. While also having neurofibromatosis just like Edward once did, Oswald is effortlessly funny and charming to others around him, and this certainly makes Edward feel conflicted about discarding his old self.

Director/writer Aaron Schimberg, who is no stranger to exploring appearance and identity as shown from his previous film “Chained for Life” (2018), keeps the story and characters rolling via the absurd comic logic of the plot, and there are several genuinely funny scenes I will let you watch for yourself. For instance, a certain very famous actor makes a surprise appearance later in the story, and this reminds me again that he really should utilize his singular intense persona more in comedy (After all, being absolutely serious is usually a necessary requirement for any good comedy film, right?).

The movie certainly depends a lot on the excellent comic lead performance from Sebastian Stan, who deservedly received the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the Berlin International Film Festival early in last year (He also won the award for the Best Performance by a Male Actor – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards a few weeks ago, by the way). Deftly balancing his role between comic irony and dramatic inner conflict, Stan did a fabulous job of building up his character even while wearing a lot of makeup during the first half of the film, and he gets funnier as willingly leaping from his established ground for more humor and laugh.

The two other main cast members in the film are equally engaging in their respective roles. While Renate Reinsve, who has been quite busy after her breakout performance in Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated film “The Worst Person in the World”, brings enough wit and intelligence to her part, Adam Pearson, who was utterly unforgettable in his brief appearance in Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin” (2013) and previously collaborated with Schimberg in “Chained for Light”, steals every moment of his in the movie besides being an effective counterpart to Stan, and he surely deserves all the praises and recognitions he has so far received for the film during last several months.

Overall, “A Different Man” is both funny and thought-provoking because of its witty storytelling and compelling performances, and it also took me back to a person I happened to notice a few days ago. She was a woman whose face was as disfigured as Edward’s old self and Oswald, and I observed how she seemed totally fine with herself despite that. Now I am wondering how she may feel and think about the movie, and, in my trivial opinion, she will probably enjoy it as much as I did.