By Paul Byrnes
DEAR EVAN HANSEN ★★
(M) 137 minutes, cinemas
It’s not easy turning a great musical into a great movie. How often has it been done? Well, there was South Pacific, Oklahoma, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, The Rocky Horror Show, A Chorus Line, Oliver! and Chicago for starters. Clearly, it can be done.
Ben Platt (left) and Julianne Moore play mother and son in Dear Evan Hansen.
Dear Evan Hansen won the Tony Awards for best musical and best score in 2017, plus a couple for two of its stars, Ben Platt and Rachel Bay Jones. I have not seen the show but the movie is underwhelming. The story is surprising and nuanced; the songs are catchy and anthemic and Ben Platt reprises the role that made him a star. So what went wrong?
I blame the fiddlers. Not the violinists but those who decided they could improve on a hit show by changing it – deleting the opening number, beefing up this character or that, changing the ending, adding a new song and dropping others. The film opened the Toronto Film Festival a few months back and largely got a thumbs down from critics. Given that the producer here is Marc Platt, father of the star, the fingers have generally pointed in that direction.
Ben Platt at 28 copped some flak for being “too old” to play a high-schooler but that’s nonsense. He still looks like a 17-year-old and he’s the best thing about the movie. The character of Evan is a difficult sell – an anxiety-ridden, painfully timid teenager taking three types of medication, who has to be able to soar when he opens his throat on heartfelt songs of pain and emotion.
That’s the set-up. Evan can’t face the world without pills. His therapist wants him to write letters to himself as a way of seeking equilibrium. In one of these, he wishes he could speak to Zoe, the girl of his dreams and wonders if anyone would miss him if he was gone from the world. Her brother Connor (Colton Ryan), who’s clearly disturbed, finds the letter, with disastrous consequences.
Evan’s life then turns sharply towards Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever) and her rich, unhappy parents, played by Amy Adams and Danny Pino. Evan’s hard-working mother (Julianne Moore, replacing Rachel Bay Jones), doesn’t see her son’s spiral into fantasy.
The story structure may be ancient – the lie that can’t be untold – but the themes are modern, especially the examination of the way kids now use social media. Going “viral” really does become like a disease here and it gives the film some relevance and heft.
The problem is that director Stephen Chbosky seems unable to control the pace and mood. It’s all-ahead-full – one big anthem, every couple of minutes, largely sung by Platt. These become samey because they are: a number of the tunes are reprises.
Something has been lost in translation from stage to screen because what’s there now does not seem strong enough to have won best musical and best score on Broadway. And at 137 minutes, it does go on.
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