Dear Evan Hansen (The Review)

Based on the Tony-winning Broadway musical, Dear Evan Hansen returns to grace our lives with its stellar music and controversial storyline, now in a form of a motion picture featuring Ben Platt himself, reprising the titular character. From director Stephen Chbosky (Perks of Being a Wallflower and Wonder) and songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land and The Greatest Showman), Dear Evan Hansen deems to make audiences possibly cry whilst watching this movie like most people did when they watched the original Broadway production. 

For those who don't know what this will be about, this musical tells the story of Evan Hansen, a boy suffering from anxiety and depression who writes encouraging letters to himself as an assignment given by his therapist to help him get through the day. On the first day back in school, one of his letters gets taken by Connor Murphy, a bully-like character that suffers from his own demons. Fearing that Connor had posted the letter, Evan lives in paranoia for days until he finds out that Connor had actually committed suicide. Connor's parents find the letter, assuming that Connor and Evan had been friends. Instead of telling the truth, Evan instead continues on this narrative that he and Connor were indeed secretly friends and we watch that lie unfold, combust, and of course, what happens in the aftermath. 

Dear Evan Hansen portrays a controversial storyline with good songs, basically. However, does the movie live up to its Broadway production? The show has been brought back so many times on stage for 5 to 6 years and I managed to watch the original on-stage show through a terrible video camera recording by a member of the audience. With that said, I was surprised that the movie was somewhat underwhelming. 

I don't know if it was a good idea to drag the movie for 2 hours and at least 17 minutes - and longer runtimes are usually something I'd advocate for - but for some reason, I really feel the film stretching itself too thin by the time "You Will Be Found" ends. I do, however, disagree with what everyone is saying about this cast. I have read tons of reviews saying that most of the casting choices were bad, or at least in the lines of that. But I do not feel that way. Yes, they do not live up to the actors that portrayed these characters on stage but these A-list actors were great and acted their hearts out. 

A significant backlash also includes the recasting of Ben Platt due to him playing a teenager when he is actually 27 years old. I don't know why people had a problem all of a sudden, with this when Hollywood has been doing this for years, especially in musicals involving teenagers. Criticizing the casting team and Ben Platt himself for a reason like this just seems unnecessary and also a little unjustified. Apart from that, Platt was indeed phenomenal as Evan Hansen. The fact that they got him and the rest of the cast to sing live throughout filming makes it so much better, especially when it came to Platt's vocals, which undeniably overpowers the soundtrack in a good way. 

The cast includes a stellar lineup with the likes of Julianna Moore, Amy Adams, Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, and many more. All of them were great. It was honestly so pleasing to see Stenberg again and learning that she collaborated with Pasek and Paul to write her character's solo song was mind-blowing and I have also never seen Julianne Moore sing so, that was extra surprising as well.  

The only memorable thing about this movie is, of course, the soundtrack. Every song hits you differently, touches at least one relatable part of your life, and that is what makes the songs so good. This is especially true since they were written by Paul and Pasek who are known to written songs like the Oscar-winning City of Stars featured in La La Land and This Is Me, the crowd-pleaser of The Greatest Showman. 

To end this especially long review, Dear Evan Hansen isn't best the movie of the year but it has the same ingredients that made the Greatest Showman the hit it is today. Unfortunately, the movie isn't playing in Malaysian cinemas but you can watch it online right now and be able to sing along to the songs over and over again like it's 2017.