Starring: Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Julianne Moore, Nik Dodani, and Colton Ryan
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 137 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2021
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This American musical drama is an adaptation of the 2016 stage musical of the same name. It is based on the story of what happens when a boy suicides after he steals a letter that was not his.
This film is an adaptation of the award-winning musical by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul about a high school student, Evan Hansen, who suffers from Social Anxiety Disorder. The film is a movie adaptation of a musical hit, and new character parts and songs are written especially for the film.
Platt plays Evan Hansen in the film, as he did on stage in the New York theatre production, which won six of nine possible Tony Awards in 2017. The film adaptation is co-produced by Marc Platt, Ben’s father. Five songs from the original theatre production are omitted; and new songs are included. The film (as with the stage musical) is loosely inspired by real events. The plot derives from an event that occurred at Benj Pasek’s high school in the suburbs of Philadelphia, when a lonely student died from a drug overdose, and those that knew him began to claim they were part of his life. In this film, Evan’s social anxiety envelops him in a web of deceit that is reinforced by his personal longing for acceptance, and human connection.
In the movie, Evan, alone and feeling isolated, regularly writes a letter to himself to affirm who he is on the recommendation of his therapist. One of his letters is stolen by a lonely and agitated school bully, Connor Murphy (Ryan), and afterwards, Connor commits suicide. After Connor dies, the letter from Evan is found in the pocket of his jacket. Evan later makes himself part of Connor’s life. He lies to Connor’s family, and his memorial tribute to Connor at Connor’s funeral goes viral on social media, impressing everybody that hears it. Connor’s family believes that Connor intended the letter for Evan and that Evan and Connor must have been close friends. The family was unaware that Connor stole the letter from Evan, before he took his life.
The impact of Evan’s personal striving for self-acceptance is accentuated by Connor’s death, and the film tackles several major social and mental-issue themes. It targets the impact of social media on adolescents, and on society in general. Social media frequently deals with tragedy by presenting an image of the person, who is affected, but it is often an image that misrepresents the real person. Media images can heighten the awareness of people viewing a tragedy, and public grieving can potentially turn tragedy into a therapeutic event for people anxiously seeking help. Social-media misrepresentation affected Evan Hansen. It distorted reality for him by recasting his anxiety in ways that urged fresh attention. Multiple themes are thoughtfully captured by the film. They encompass the grief of loved ones; how easily the internet turns fake news into established fact; how sorrow can lead people to distort memories of their loved ones; and how fantasy can address mental isolation by providing distorted versions of what is actually felt, or experienced.
The acting in the film is compelling and convincing. Platt sings and acts commandingly, and he firmly establishes the strength of the unfolding drama, while Julianne Moore brings special sensitivity to her role as Evan’s mother. This is a contemporary musical film about life that deals with significant adolescent issues in a creative way. Evan Hanson is not all that defensible as a moral character, however, given his original deceit, and the film works hard to keep viewers on his side – the path to Evan’s deceit, for example, is communicated rather more convincingly than the path out of it. The film, however, is derivative of a very successful stage production, and involves many of the same people, and this is a cinema adaptation of a musical, which explores major social and mental health issues among adolescents in an unusual way. It is a hard ask to mount a musical on youth-suicide and loneliness, but the film’s music and singing are particularly well integrated with its drama, and Ben Platt very impressively cements their force.
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