Dear Evan Hansen
Despite some A+ songs, this musical serves up nothing truly new.
Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) is a relative loner at school. His mother (Julianne Moore) makes him see a therapist, who suggests that he write positive letters to himself. However, a mix-up with Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), a dark and mysterious loner at the school, leads to an in-hall argument, and his letter, starting ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, being taken by the youth. Flash forward a few days, and Connor’s parents (Danny Pino and Amy Adams) arrive at the school to tell Evan that Connor has taken his own life, and left this letter for him. Realizing they are unaware that Evan wrote the letter himself, the young man sets about trying to ease their pain in whatever way they can, in the process building a precarious house of cards sure to tumble down.
Directed by Stephen Chbosky, Dear Evan Hansen is a relatively straight adaptation of the hit stage show. Perhaps its greatest issue, the familiarity of the piece, could certainly stem from the success of its predecessor. The film feels a lot like the plethora of angsty teen content we have seen in recent years, and ideas that seemed fresh and new in a Netflix series like 13 Reasons Why, even if that show stole a lot of those ideas from this very stage show, now seem tired and played out in this big screen adaptation.
Similarly, the casting of Ben Platt, who played Evan in the stage show, is problematic, as the 28 year old man is just too old to play this highschooler. Then again, this role cemented him in the industry, and he is fantastic at it (as you would expect after having played it literally hundreds of times), but the glorious detail of cinema does no wonders for the illusion, with high quality detail picking up the lines and age of a face too old for the role.
There are a few iffy casting choices throughout - Julianne Moore and Amy Adams in particular make this film feel like it should be an ‘important’ movie, and that is probably a little to the detriment of the film. There’s a definite level of preparing to cringe when you can feel their musical numbers coming on, but thankfully they both acquit themselves well (indeed, all of the performers are roundly excellent in their roles).
Visually, while this is fun and interesting at times, there isn’t anything groundbreaking here - particularly in the dance numbers. Coming off the back of the wonderfully inventive In The Heights, the lack of ingenuity makes this feel a little paint by numbers.
Kaitlyn Dever as Connor’s brother is the standout, bringing a tremendous level of nuance to a role while also giving it a believability that the bigger names in the piece fail to do.
In the end, Dear Evan Hansen is fine. It’s entertaining, and relatively easy to watch. But it feels extremely familiar, and breaks no boundaries, leaving one solid question in your mind as you leave the cinema - why?
