Dear Evan Hansen, you owe us an apology | TIFF movie review

Dear Evan Hansen follows a high school senior with a social anxiety disorder who suddenly finds himself as the hero of his town after a student commits suicide

Undoubtedly one of the worst movie-musicals ever made. Overwrought and emotionless at the same time, insensitive towards trauma and mental illness, and out of touch with reality. Jail to everyone.

Dear Evan Hansen,

Today was not a good day because I was subjected to watching you.

Sincerely,
Me

Usually I don’t like being mean about the films I don’t like. Also, I’m a firm believer that almost every film made with the best of intentions has some good you can derive from it. However, Dear Evan Hansen doesn’t sit right with me. At its root, it feels rotten. Like its intentions are misplaced or, given the benefit of the doubt, misunderstood. Director Stephen Chbosky, whose films The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Wonder I truly enjoy, was simply handed a bad project.

The movie follows Evan Hansen (played by Ben Platt), your typical high school senior with a social anxiety disorder who is tasked by his therapist to write a letter to himself every day. After a misunderstanding causes him to become the hero of his town following the suicide of his classmate Connor (Colton Ryan), Evan must continually expand his web of lies and keep all he has gained from the fallout.

This includes lying to Connor’s family (Amy Adams and Danny Pino) about being friends with their son, dating Connor’s sister (Kaitlyn Dever), working with Alana (Amandla Stenberg) on an entire organization and fundraiser honoring him. The list goes on and on. No one is safe from his deceit. The fact that this is a musical is confounding because watching Evan spin lie after lie in songs like “For Forever” and, even more maliciously, fabricate evidence in “Sincerely, Me” almost makes light of the damage his actions are bound to cause.

At this point, if you’re already asking yourself why this seemingly terrible human is the protagonist of the story then we are on the same page. The film, which is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name featuring music by Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, was meant to “immortalize” 27-year-old Platt’s Tony-winning performance. However, Dear Evan Hansen seems to be a story that only worked in the thin period of time when it came out. It already feels dated — as does Platt’s hair.

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Reportedly, changes were made in the adaptation to address some of the more polarizing issues with the story. If that’s the case, then I’d hate to see what was wrong with the musical. At its core, the musical is meant to preach that everyone is dealing with their own traumas whether it be depression, social anxiety, suicidal thoughts, insecurities, however it doesn’t take any time to actually explore the reality of those traumas. Instead, it’s a surface level assessment of them. Hollywood’s “glamourized” version where consequences don’t exist.

Because of its purely uninformed and disingenuous portrayal of mental illness — and apparent disregard of therapy — the movie feels overwrought and emotionless at the same time. It mines melodrama with no actual basis for it. It feels like the characters are just pawns in this power grab for sympathy. And while there is some good acting here — Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg, and Kaitlyn Dever, in particular — the rest of the cast feels like they’re in a competition of who can ugly cry the most.

Evan Hansen, whose actions throughout the film could only be described as monstrous, is meant to meet consequences at the end of the film and Connor is meant to be humanized. Instead, Evan’s behavior, which is harmful to the stigma around mental illness, is excused as a product of past trauma. Something the movie was supposedly supposed to fix. Or maybe, just maybe, this was a story we didn’t need to have told again.

More movies, less problems

Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.

Dear Evan Hansen follows a high school senior with a social anxiety disorder who suddenly finds himself as the hero of his town after a student commits suicide

More movies, less problems

Karl Delossantos

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