by John Bizub, Contributing Writer
The musical genre has had a resurgence within the last couple of years. Many filmmakers have tried to make original musicals and we have seen plenty in recent years like La La Land and recently Leos Carax’s Annette. However, many talented filmmakers have tried to make their own adaptation of critically acclaimed Broadway shows. So far this year, we had John M. Chu’s sensation In the Heights, and now we have Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen. The Broadway smash hit tells the story of Evan Hansen, a wallflower teenager who tries to make good in the world and proves his worth after being struck with a tragedy after a classmate takes his own life. This musical adaptation stars Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, and Kaitlyn Dever, among others.
My first exposure with the musical was back when the insane amount of buzz was in full swing. I was fortunate enough to see it as a young teen and sing its praises, but the more I grow up and take in the production’s overall themes and character motivations, the more I find it to be a problematic work that is mysteriously critically acclaimed. So seeing a film adaptation being made starring the same actor who was in the stage play only made me more excited to see people realize that the show was never that good in the first place, while also being curious on if Chbosky made any changes to the story.
I could go as far as saying Dear Evan Hansen, the film adaptation, is more problematic than the Broadway play. It is extremely messy and manipulative, and fails at being a high school drama. Obviously if you have been on the internet within the last two weeks, you would have heard of the awful physical appearance of Ben Platt. I am not going to beat around the bush any longer — he looks like an uncanny valley version of Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. At times, Platt will be seen talking to younger cast members and it looks very jarring and weird. His poor performance as Evan is due to an awfully written caricature of a character, at times feeling like he is mocking those with people suffering from social anxiety and depression, which at times had me enraged. Sure, he has a good voice, but the musical moments never feel justified nor are they placed correctly. They feel like a chore rather than an event.
The script feels all over the place to the point that you cannot root for any character, big role or small. Evan’s motivation is to lie about being friends with someone who has taken his own life only to get closer to the family’s daughter, who happens to be his crush, to Jared, who helps Evan out in this whole “plan,” and even to the parents, who hardly have any room to grieve and brush it off within an hour of the film’s runtime. The film tries to change things from the original play to make Evan a good person in the end, but even then it comes off as problematic and makes me not like Evan more.
The editing is very choppy. At times it is to the beat of the song and at times it was edited by five different people and feels incomprehensible to the naked eye. The sound design is very weird, like they placed the music in post-production rather than feeling like a musical and feel correctly synced.
Dear Evan Hansen by design sounds like a heartfelt story made to inspire the youth, but the angle chosen comes off weird, creepy, and unearned. Everyone in the main cast tries to give it their all with what they are given, but it is just not enough to justify its manipulative and messy script. Ben Platt has a nice voice, but is not suited to play a 16-year-old teenager. There are many good musicals that have come out this year. However, Dear Evan Hansen is absolutely not one of them.
Grade: F