Movie Review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Blu-ray

Review by Lauryn Angel

I admit that I have not seen a stage production of Dear Evan Hansen, but being familiar with the storyline and as a fan of Stephen Chbosky, I was eager to check it out. I’d heard great things about the musical and I was aware of the controversy around the casting of Ben Platt as Evan Hansen. (To sum up: Platt originated the role on Broadway in 2014 when he was 20, but at the age of 27 is a bit old to be playing a high school senior.) Aside from Platt, the movie’s cast included Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever, and Amandla Stenberg, who all deliver wonderful performances. The songs were catchy. Overall, though, the film was just . . . fine.

The story follows the titular character as he returns to high school for his senior year. Evan Hansen struggles with anxiety and depression and has been assigned by his therapist to write letters to himself to help ground himself. Classmate Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan) – coincidentally the older brother of the girl Evan has a crush on – steals the letter from Evan, and it’s found in Connor’s pocket after he commits suicide. Connor’s parents (played by Adams and Danny Pino) and sister Zoe (Dever) mistake the situation and conclude that Connor wrote the letter to Evan, who lets them believe he was Connor’s only friend. Soon, Evan finds that whereas before no one at school noticed him, now everyone wants to talk to him about Connor — even class president Alana Beck (Stenberg), who wants to use Connor’s death to bring attention to mental health issues.

Part of my issue with the story is that the conclusion is inevitable, and I felt like I was just waiting for Evan’s secret to be exposed. Meanwhile, Evan just digs himself in deeper and deeper, which is understandable, but also very difficult to watch when you know it’s going to come back at him in the end. The film also does a good job at demonstrating just how cruel teenagers can be to one another: in one scene at a school assembly, Evan’s classmates pull out their phones and start recording when they get the sense that he is about to embarrass himself. It’s a pressure we didn’t have when I was in high school, and it makes Evan’s willingness to go along with the story even more understandable, but I still felt myself cringe each time he made the situation worse for himself.

In spite of the great performances from the entire cast and a soundtrack I’m sure I’ll revisit, Dear Evan Hansen falls flat for me. I didn’t hate it. In fact, I’m glad I saw it. But it didn’t leave a mark on me the way Chbosky’s far superior The Perks of Being a Wallflower did.

Available Tuesday, December 7th.