Review: Despite memorable music, message of ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ misses on screen

Add “Dear Evan Hansen” to the long list of Broadway musicals that do not transition to the screen.

The problem doesn’t come from the source material itself, Steve Levenson’s exploration of mental health and teen suicide, but from the unwillingness by director Stephen Chbosky to take any chances with it.

This is a cookie-cutter, by-the-numbers adaptation that doesn’t really do justice to the Tony Award-winning musical.

At its heart, the film recognizes a fundamental fact about people. In some regard, beneath the surface, we’re all dealing with something. It’s an identifiable theme that makes the stage production an emotional journey.

While echoes of that emotional journey exist in this adaptation, it ultimately feels hollow as the film drifts in different directions.

Levenson, who adapts from his Broadway book, certainly has a feel for the material, but ultimately the story of high schooler Evan Hansen, who personally deals with social anxiety, feels forced.

He’s not one of the “cool” kids and he tries to come to grips with that perpetual fact during his senior year of high school, that one year that’s supposed to be the most enjoyable of all.

Not for him.

A chance encounter with another school outcast, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), sends his life into a whirlwind when Connor takes a letter Evan wrote to himself as part of therapy and keeps it. The letter is intimate in that it contains his innermost thoughts including his feelings toward Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), Murphy’s sister.

Several days later, Connor kills himself and his parents Cynthia (Amy Adams) and Larry (Danny Pino) find the letter on him. They immediately assume that Evan and Connor were friends, a fact that Evan attempts to correct. It doesn’t help that Connor, in a mocking way, signed the cast Evan had on his broken arm, something Cynthia sees, further cementing her view of the situation.

From that moment on, faced with Connor’s grieving family, he gives them what they so desperately seem to need, a reason to hold on.

And for Evan, who lives with his mother (Julianne Moore) who parents him alone, it provides him a sense of a nuclear family as the Murphys embrace him as a son. It’s easy to say they’re filling a void, but their intentions seem sincere.

With all of that comes a series of events that lead them all down a rabbit hole dug with lies. No one in this story is innocent, especially Evan, who capitalizes on his “friendship” with Connor to fill his emotional needs, nor the Murphys.

Where there are no innocents, hurt normally follows and that’s indeed the case, but it all feels so anti-climactic as the process plays out. That’s ultimately the film’s primary shortcoming.

It certainly isn’t the music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. It features several memorable songs — and what is a musical without those?

And there’s little to quibble with respect to performances, although it’s been suggested thPlatt, who is 28, may be a bit too old to be playing the role he originated on Broadway.  However, no one knows the part better and it’s evident in this turn he feels the emotions down to his soul. The age factor proved a nonfactor from this perspective. Given that it’s his film, that’s a strength.

And there’s little faulting his supporting cast either, especially Adams and Moore, who give their normal sparkling performances.

Bottom line: Some plays and musicals translate well to the screen, but generally not when doing a note-for-note rendition. “Dear Evan Hansen” falls into the latter category.

George M. Thomas can be reached at gthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByGeorgeThomas

Details

Movie: “Dear Evan Hansen”

Cast: Ben Platt, Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever

Directed by: Stephen Chbosky

Running time: 2 hours 17 minutes

Rated: PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide, brief strong language and some suggestive reference

Grade: C