Review: “Dear Evan Hansen”
Nadia Liban
Staff Writer
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The new movie adaptation of the Broadway musical,
Dear Evan Hansen, starring Ben Platt, who reprised his role as Evan Hansen, was released September 24th. The film failed to do well with the debut weekend only making 7.5 million dollars in the box office.
Dear Evan Hansen mostly brought in past fans of the musical, but other audiences, not so much.
Dear Evan Hansen follows an anxious high school senior, Evan Hansen, who writes letters to himself to start off his day right. When a high school student, Connor Murphy, commits suicide, one of Evan Hansen’s letters was found left with him from Connor taking it earlier in a fight.
Connor Murphy’s grieving parents imagine a narrative Connor and Evan were best friends, and Evan decides to play into the narrative. Evan Hansen cons Connor’s parents and spirals into a pool of lies.
I do enjoy the musical part of the movie such as the songs “Sincerely, Me” and “You Will Be Found,” but the actual movie part was not enjoyable. The pacing made a one-hour, 30-minute movie feel like three. By the end of the movie I was hoping the movie would end sooner.
A big controversy with the movie is the casting of Evan Hansen. Ben Platt was the first to play Evan Hansen on Broadway when he was 20 and played the role 7 years later. Platt was 27 when filming the adaptation. Audiences were disappointed in finding out Platt’s father was the producer of the film and suspected nepotism was in place during the casting. Platt looking 30+ when his character is 17-18 makes it a lot harder to relate to Evan Hansen and forgive his actions.
Dear Evan Hansen is not a film I would recommend to audiences who aren't familiar with the original musical and I still wouldn't recommend the film to past fans as it was a disappointment in the end. The film does discuss mental health and suicide, so it's not something younger audiences should watch alone.