Dear Evan Hansen (2021) Universal/Musical-Drama RT: 137 minutes Rated PG-13 (thematic material involving suicide, brief strong language, some suggestive/drug references) Director: Stephen Chbosky Screenplay: Steven Levenson Music: Justin Paul and Dan Romer Cinematography: Brandon Trost Release date: September 24, 2021 (US) Cast: Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, Danny Pino, Amandla Stenberg, Colton Ryan, Nik Dodani, DeMarius Copes, Liz Kate, Zoey Luna, Isaac Powell. Box Office: $15M (US)/$19.1M (World)
Rating: *
I can sit through the bloodiest, sickest horror movies without recoiling or covering my eyes. This includes the torture porn movies that were briefly popular in the 00s. I didn’t even twitch at the sadistic atrocities depicted in the Hostel flicks. My tolerance only goes so far however. I do have a breaking point and the makers of Dear Evan Hansen found it. I cringed A LOT during this terrible tone-deaf musical dealing with teen suicide, mental illness and other happy subjects. Based on a Tony-winning stage play, it is insufferable. It’s shallow, emotionally manipulative, insincere and overlong. The songs are cloying and instantly forgettable. Worst of all, it has one of the most unlikable protagonists I’ve ever seen in one of these teen movies. Look, I get that the guy has social anxiety, but that doesn’t give him a license to be a total dick. I’m sorry if I sound unsympathetic, but Dear Evan Hansen (and Evan Hansen) really brings out the worst in me.
High school senior Evan Hansen (Platt, Pitch Perfect 1 & 2) suffers from severe social anxiety and depression. He lives with his divorced mother (Moore, Still Alice) who’s rarely home because she’s always picking up extra shifts at work. He doesn’t associate with anybody at school other than Jared (Dodani, Escape Room), a self-described “family friend” who won’t even sign Evan’s cast because of what it would imply. Social outcast Connor Murphy (Ryan, Little Voice), on the other hand, gladly scrawls his name in great big letters. This way, they can both pretend they have friends. Connor is a fellow troubled teen who dresses in what classmates describe as school shooter chic. He certainly has the same unpredictable temperament.
On the advice of his therapist, Evan writes daily self-affirmation letters to himself. One day, he makes the mistake of writing it on a school computer. When he goes to retrieve it from the printer, Connor beats him to it. Not liking that Evan mentions his younger sister Zoe (Dever, Booksmart) in it, he keeps it. Fearing he will post it on social media, Evan frets for several days before being summoned to the principal’s office where Connor’s parents Larry (Pino, Law & Order: SVU) and Cynthia (Adams, Arrival) are waiting to speak to him. They come bearing sad news. Their son has taken his own life. They found the “Dear Evan Hansen” letter on him and assume it’s a suicide note addressed to his only friend in the world. They’re glad because they didn’t know Connor had any friends.
In the first of many, many bad choices, Evan doesn’t come right out and say he wasn’t friends with Connor. In fact, they barely knew each other. He goes to dinner at their house where he spins (or rather, sings) a fabricated story about their friendship and a special day they spent with each other at an apple orchard. It snowballs from there. Evan tells lie after lie after lie. He’s asked to say (sing) a few words at a school memorial service. His performance (“You Will Be Found”) goes viral and starts a movement to address mental illness among teens. It sounds good until you realize that everything good that comes of the tragedy is founded on a lie. It’s only a matter of time before the whole house of cards come toppling down and lands squarely on Evan’s deserving head.
Directed by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Dear Evan Hansen is full of good intentions, but as we all know, the road to hell is lined with those. It purports to address serious teen issues- i.e. suicide and mental illness- in a meaningful way, but what it actually does is exploits them for dramatic gain. There’s not a single emotion in the film that isn’t manipulated. Also, it’s hard to root for a character like Evan Hansen. Simply put, he’s an a**hole, a lying one at that. He could have set the record straight about him and Connor right away, but doesn’t. He might have meant well at first, but that flies out the window when he recruits Jared to create fake e-mails between him and Connor. He then goes from liar to opportunist. He’s clearly enjoying his newfound popularity with classmates who previously ignored him. He even uses the tragedy as a means of getting together with his crush Zoe. Did I mention this guy is a dick?
The 27YO Platt, who also played the role on Broadway, looks too old to be playing a teen, but I’m going to let that go in favor of a bigger problem, namely his awful performance. I’m not even sure if I should dignify it by calling it a performance. It’s more of a collection of tics, jitters and whiny dialogue. It’s actually offensive if you want to know the truth. Are we really supposed to feel for this guy when he makes a not-so-shocking revelation to his mom near the end, especially after all the crap he pulled? What he does to Connor’s family is unforgivable. He takes advantage of them at their most vulnerable, playing with their emotions and not giving a single thought to the long-term damage his deception will cause. I couldn’t stand this guy.
Nobody in Dear Evan Hansen feels remotely like a real person. Other than Evan’s mother, a proud woman who turns down a generous offer from Connor’s wealthy parents to fund his college education, it’s the most poorly drawn bunch of characters I’ve ever seen in a musical. Take the popular girl Alana (Stenberg, The Hate U Give) who starts “The Connor Project” to set up a permanent memorial in his memory. In a heart-to-heart with Evan, she reveals she suffers from the same issues he does. That’s as much insight as we get into her. She’s the one who ultimately (and inadvertently) gets the ball rolling on Evan’s downfall. The supporting characters in Dear Evan Hansen exist for no other purpose than acting as pawns in Evan’s devious game.
As I implied in the previous paragraph, Moore delivers a good performance. The rest of them are lousy. The music is no prize either. The songs are especially grating, pure pop pabulum fit only for the playlists of preteens who don’t know any better. The vocal performances reminded me of a middle school musical. They’re passable, but nothing to sing about. Dear Evan Hansen also suffers from bad writing and directing. I never felt anything real in the movie. I only felt embarrassment for the many, many bad choices made by the characters, especially Evan for whom I also felt contempt.
I know Dear Evan Hansen has loyal fans, but do not count me among them. It’s the most annoying musical since Cats. It’s worse than the recent musical remake of Cinderella. It’s horrible. I HATED every stinking, sappy, insincere second of it. I don’t have many regrets in my cinematic life, but watching Dear Evan Hansen just made the top of the list.
