Dear Evan Hansen

 

No, Steven Chbosky's film adaptation of the Broadway musical sensation Dear Evan Hansen is not the horror-show some movie critics have deemed it. And star Ben Platt only sporadically looks too old for the role of the high school senior of the title. I found it entertaining and think the degree to which one will enjoy it will vary based on one's appreciation for the staginess of the show, the starkness of some of its viewpoints and the patness of its final act. The story itself might be revealing or off-putting, depending on an audience member's proximity to teenagers, depression or suicide.

The music by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, the film's greatest asset, is tuneful and infectious, every performance on the money, and will likely lead many to set aside that the film is about an emotionally distressed young man, Evan Hansen, who crafts out of whole cloth a relationship with a classmate, Connor (star featured player Colton Ryan), who has killed himself. A letter Evan wrote to himself as part of his therapy is discovered and confiscated by Connor and later found in the dead boy's pockets. His parents (Amy Adams and Danny Pino), finding the letter, conclude Evan and Connor were friends and they press Evan for information about the son neither they nor their daughter Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), whom Evan is pining for, barely knew. Thus begins what is at first a dream and then a nightmare for Hansen.

I was bothered a bit that the narrative does not explore the cause(s) of the mental or emotional illness on display in the film's characters -- primarily Evan and Connor but also by a high-powered student leader Alana (the lovely Amandla Stenberg), who identifies with Evan's immobilizing fear but is on meds to treat it. Perhaps the reasons are too complex to deal with in 2 1/2 hours, but the storyline seems to point to divorce and abandonment and familial fragmentation. In fact, Evan's tearful confession to making up the lies refers to his desire to be a part of Connor's family, despite having a loving and dutiful mother of his own (a fantastic Julianne Moore).

That Evan was abetted in creating a history of email exchanges between himself and Connor by a jokey "family friend" named Jared (Nik Dodani) turns what began as misguided empathy into callous manipulation. This, more than anything, might set some viewers off.

The film is by no means for every taste. Many will likely avoid it because people do indeed break out in song as part of the movie's exposition. Others will object to the subject matter or Platt's hair. In the final analysis, its message about authenticity and connectedness are worth considering. And the songs are pretty.