Dear Evan Hansen- Waiving Through The Silver Screen
Dear Evan Hansen (2021) was directed by Stephen Chbosky and is an adaptation of the award winning musical of the same name. The story follows Evan Hansen, (played by Ben Platt), a boy who is going to therapy for his continuing battle with anxiety and depression. After he is given an assignment to write a letter to himself, the school bully Connor Murphy takes it from him and reads about the crush Evan has on her sister. After an outburst, Connor goes home and takes his own life. When the letter entitled "Dear Evan Hansen" is found, his parents believe that the two of them were friends. After many lies and a "GoFundMe" is started, Evans lie about their "friendship" comes to light. There was a lot of hate online going into this movie and I believe that they were misguided. To truly appreciate the film like I did, seeing the musical first helps. I am in love with live theatre and Dear Evan Hansen was one of my favorite musicals. Yes, Ben Platt does look a little too old to be playing this part, but in my opinion, he is the only person who could have done the part justice. I also really didn't care how they took out certain songs from the musical for the movie. Some of these songs made the story make more sense and I noticed that it led to some relationships being unexplored in the film. Besides those things, I thought that they did a great job with the adaptation. The cast was amazing with a really great performance from Connor's sister, Zoey, (played by Kaitlyn Dever). Her relationship with Evan was the standout of the film and I loved every scene the two were in. This film brought a tear to my eye just like the stage production did many years ago. I have a lot of appreciation for how complex this story is. Not just for its subplots, but how it deals with such serious topics. It was a great film and I recommend you give it a watch.
My Rating- 8/10
Rated- PG-13
Rotten Tomatoes- 35%