Adapting musicals on their own is a challenge. Adapting a musical like Dear Evan Hansen, which relies heavily on the performances of its actors and little else, felt insurmountable. And yet here we are.
For as much as Dear Evan Hansen is touted as an award-winning musical, there are some issues that become magnified in its film version and are hard to overlook. But those who are fans of the music will likely find that this adaptation serves the material well enough to make it worth a watch. Others who are coming into this completely blind might have different feelings.
The story in Dear Evan Hansen is as contrived as they come. Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) is a high schooler that struggles with social anxiety. He sees a therapist, takes copious medications, and his mother (Julianne Moore) is constantly worrying about whether he has friends at school. At its best, Dear Evan Hansen captures the outsider’s perspective in a way rarely seen in media. Usually, the awkward teen is just one makeover away from popularity but here Dear Evan Hansen attributes those feelings to genuine mental struggles. It’s authentic and the music gets to the soul of what it means to want to fit in.
Dear Evan Hansen’s cast is also at the top of their game, delivering emotional performances while also belting out some truly complex musical numbers. It’s easy to see why Platt won a Tony Award for his performance as Evan and while the rest of the characters are played by familiar faces like Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, and Kaitlyn Dever, they still treat the material with respect. The real standout in the film, though, is Amandla Stenberg who plays Alana Beck, a character who highlights the other side of the coin: a popular student who feels equally overwhelmed by the pressures and rigors of high school.
Truly, Dear Evan Hansen’s music is great, and its performers are exceptional; it’s the narrative that buckles under the cinematic approach. The big conceit of the film is that Evan finds friends, romance, and a second family but under dubious circumstances. He purports to have been a close friend of Connor Murphy (Colton) and delivers comfort to the Murphy family (Adams, Dever, and Danny Pino) by singing stories that suggest Connor didn’t feel the way about them they thought he did. When it originally debuted, the musical seemed to skirt the concerns about Evan’s deceit and it was overlooked by its core fanbase. Somehow the film makes it more obvious and the narrative buckles under those criticisms.. It could be that Ben Platt looks more like a 20-year-old playing a teenager here (an odd hairdo is likely the biggest culprit), or simply that the film blows the story out into more detail. It’s less intimate and feels more like a movie.
Whatever the case may be, it’s harder to get past that key detail and truly enjoy Dear Evan Hansen as a result. Those who know the musical have already come to grips with the material and are likely in it to hear Platt belt out some all-time tunes, but the rest will wonder what made Dear Evan Hansen so popular to begin with. To the film’s credit, it doesn’t completely absolve Evan of any wrongdoing like the musical seemingly does, but that’s a small consolation. Ultimately, this is an adaptation for fans of the musical, not one to convince others why it is so great.
Dear Evan Hansen is in theaters now.
Dear Evan Hansen
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget
- Release Date
- September 24, 2021
Based on the play of the same name, Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of a teenager with social anxiety who learns acceptance after one of his fellow students dies by suicide. The film adaptation features a star-studded cast including Ben Platt as Evan Hansen, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever, and Amy Adams.