Dear Evan Hansen | Film Review

 

I started listening to the soundtrack in preparation for seeing this movie at least 4 months in advance and completely fell in love with the music. So when the film finally came out I was so excited to finally see it and put my favourite songs into context.

Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) is a socially-anxious teenager who accidentally steps into the spotlight when a letter that he wrote to himself falls into the wrong hands.

I really liked this film. I had heard some negative things before going into it, so my expectations were quite low, but they were definitely exceeded. Having said that, I have never seen the Broadway version, so I'm not sure if that would change my opinion of the film.

For a start, the number one criticism of the film is that Ben Platt is too old to play a high-school student, and for me, while this was glaringly (and at points laughably) obvious, after the first song, it wasn't something that really bothered me. Yes, it would have been nice to see a younger actor, but it is what it is.

My least favourite thing about the film was probably the relationship between Evan and Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever). Everything felt a bit rushed, and I never quite believed that they liked each other - or more accurately, that she liked him that quickly. And as a result of that, the songs they sang together felt less impactful than they had sounded out of context.

Speaking of music, for the most part, the music was amazing. The soundtrack is already incredible, but seeing the songs in the context of the film definitely added something, and I've heard the soundtrack differently ever since.

One thing that I got from the film that was absolutely missed while only listening to the soundtrack was the character of Connor (Colton Ryan). He wasn't on screen long, but I just fell in love with that character. In fact, I think I'd rather watch a film about Connor than about Evan. He's an incredibly interesting, complex character, and even though we didn't see a lot of him, we definitely felt his impact.

And with Connor, comes the entire Murphy family, who I absolutely loved. Other than Zoe and Connor, we have their parents, played by Amy Adams and Danny Pino, who were incredible in their roles.

For me, the character that I struggled the most with was Evan. While he is a relatable character (particularly in the beginning of the movie), it is hard to sympathise with his actions. And, whether he was supposed to get redemption or not, the film didn't dedicate enough time to the reactions of the people around him as a result of his actions. I would have liked the film to show less of Evan's courtship of Zoe and more about the consequences of his actions.

Overall, I'm a huge fan of musicals, so chances are I was always going to like this. But I love the story, and I thought that the actors did an amazing job with it. Now I want to see it on Broadway!

7/10