Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

A high school senior suffers from social anxiety disorder which leads him to struggle at school. His journey of self-discovery and acceptance begins following the suicide of a fellow classmate. Based on the Tony Award winning Broadway musical. 

Starring Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani, Colton Ryan, Danny Pino, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams.

Directed by Stephen Chbosky and adapted for the screen by Steven Levenson.

Trailer:

Release date: 9/24/21

[Spartan Girl]

I was supposed to see this at my theater last summer, and it was postponed to summer 2022. So this is the first time I’ll ever see a movie adaptation before the stage musical lol.

[VCRTracking]

My sentiments exactly!

 

[starri]

I'm sorry, but that's really all I can think.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Oooooohhhh, that trailer.

I almost feel bad for Ben Platt, because everyone is stating the gaping, obvious flaw that he's now much too old to play Evan Hansen onscreen. 

Then again, whenever an actress over any age plays just about anything, there are plenty of snarky remarks about that, too, so I'm not exactly going to drown in my own tears over it. 

I'll be giving this one a hard miss. I still unapologetically love the song "For Forever", I wish they'd featured that in the trailer.

[Wiendish Fitch]

20 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

My sentiments exactly!

 

I can best sum Dear Evan Hansen up as While You Were Sleeping, only platonic friendship instead of romance, and teen suicide instead of a coma.

[starri]

7 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I almost feel bad for Ben Platt, because everyone is stating the gaping, obvious flaw that he's now much too old to play Evan Hansen onscreen. 

I mean, his father produced it.  It's not like they were going to cast anyone else.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just now, starri said:

I mean, his father produced it.  It's not like they were going to cast anyone else.

[Scarlett45]

Oh wow. I didn’t know this was becoming a movie. 

[Snow Apple]

I just ran across the trailer and, oh my. It was very distracting by how....not high school age Ben looks. 

I just found out he has a Tony, Grammy, and Daytime Emmy for Dear Evan Hanson. Maybe he's trying for an EGOT for this one role alone.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, starri said:

I'm sorry, but that's really all I can think.

I'll see your Lenny Wosniak and raise you a Joey Tribbiani:

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I almost feel bad for Ben Platt, because everyone is stating the gaping, obvious flaw that he's now much too old to play Evan Hansen onscreen. 

Then again, whenever an actress over any age plays just about anything, there are plenty of snarky remarks about that, too, so I'm not exactly going to drown in my own tears over it.

I also have mixed feelings for similar reasons. In addition, I always want to celebrate when a movie adaptation of a musical is made and they keep some of the original cast. But in this case, it's really obvious that he looks way too old and it's disappointing that he is the only OBC member that they kept. I actually like most of the people who were cast, but it's just the principle of the matter that Hollywood thinks that they need to cast more recognizable actors in order to get people to watch an adaptation of a musical. I guess I should just be glad that they also included Colton Ryan.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, starri said:

I mean, his father produced it.  It's not like they were going to cast anyone else.

 

9 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Ben's dad, Marc Platt, is a producer. Some of his credits include Wicked, La La Land, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins Returns, Grease Live, Rent Live, and the movie adaptations of Nine and Aladdin. He's also producing the upcoming movie adaptations of The Little Mermaid, Once on This Island, Wicked, and Little Shop of Horrors.

[JustHereForFood]

8 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

I just ran across the trailer and, oh my. It was very distracting by how....not high school age Ben looks. 

I just found out he has a Tony, Grammy, and Daytime Emmy for Dear Evan Hanson. Maybe he's trying for an EGOT for this one role alone.

That would be a first, I believe.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Mel Brooks won 3/4 (GOT) for The Producers, but two different productions (1967 movie and 2001 Broadway production). Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice won 3/4 (GOT) for Evita but again two different productions (1980 Broadway and 1996 movie adaptation).

I hate to be one of those pedantic nitpickers, but there are some EGOT award category wins where I'm like ehhhh, I don't think that should really count towards an EGOT even though technically you DID win an award. Ben's Emmy is one of those. I don't think that winning an award for singing a 4 minute song is comparable to most other Emmy categories (and this category only existed for four years so take that as you will). Some people dismiss any daytime Emmys, but I think it depends on the category.

[Wiendish Fitch]

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

In addition, I always want to celebrate when a movie adaptation of a musical is made and they keep some of the original cast. 

I see where you're coming from, but I disagree to some extent. If the film adaptation of a Broadway musical is released in a timely fashion and the stage actors aren't too old for it, then I say go ahead. Many times, however, the actors either age out of the part, or they become super burned out playing the role yet again. Remember, many Broadway shows can run for years and years. I don't care how energetic or passionate you are, that gets exhausting. So by the time you do get a role in the film version, you're just going through the motions because any freshness or spontaneity is used up (Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in The Producers, anyone?). There will always be exceptions (Robert Preston in The Music Man, Joel Grey in Cabaret), but the current Hollywood musical is, at best, a shambling zombie with two or three decent ones a decade (if that many). Besides, in the past it was exciting when an unknown or an unexpected casting choice was put in a major Hollywood musical (Shirley Jones in Oklahoma!, Topol in Fiddler on the Roof). 

Unless I'm proven embarrassingly wrong (wouldn't be the first time), Dear Evan Hansen just might be 2005's Rent all over again.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Wiendish Fitch

[arc]

20 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I can best sum Dear Evan Hansen up as While You Were Sleeping, only platonic friendship instead of romance, and teen suicide instead of a coma.

I saw this tweet making an apt comparison:

Quote

so Dear Evan Hansen is "what if World's Greatest Dad, but earnestly inspirational"?

(Bold and link added by me)

[Inquisitionist]

Personally, I'm thrilled that Platt's performance as Evan Hansen will be captured on film.  He is a unique and powerful talent.  I had the pleasure of seeing him as Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon in Chicago when he was 19 or 20 and was blown away.  Judging by the trailer, I think complaints about his age relative to this role are exaggerated.  Judge Reinhold and Robert Romanus were in their mid-20s when Fast Times at Ridgmont High came out.  Anna Camp was almost 30 when she filmed the first Pitch Perfect, and Anna Kendrick was almost 27.

 This Vanity Fair article gives some insight into the movie version of DEH.  I'm looking forward to it.

[Jenniferbug]

My 2 thoughts after seeing the trailer were "Is that what this musical is about?" And "that guy looks way too old compared to the rest of the cast to play a teenager". I'm glad to know I'm not the only one thinking those things!

[Dejana]

15 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

 

Ben's dad, Marc Platt, is a producer. Some of his credits include Wicked, La La Land, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins Returns, Grease Live, Rent Live, and the movie adaptations of Nine and Aladdin. He's also producing the upcoming movie adaptations of The Little Mermaid, Once on This Island, Wicked, and Little Shop of Horrors.

FYI, if anyone recalls the infamous Best Picture mix-up, Marc Platt gave the second acceptance speech: in between the one who eventually announced Moonlight as the actual winner, and the "We lost, by the way" guy.

It isn't like Ben doesn't have the talent, but it would've been pretty tough for Dad to tell his son that he was over the hill (so to speak) and the movie was going in a different direction, even if he sucked.

If the plot goes the way the trailer and (overly detailed) Wikipedia entry, an actor who still came across like a 17 year old would make the character's actions slightly easier to tolerate as a viewer. Still wrong, but teenagers display poor judgment all the time.

*

 

Hollywood’s geriatric onscreen teenagers have been the butt of jokes for decades. For the most part it's nothing personal, though I understand how the role means a lot to Ben.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Dejana

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Even though the actors had clearly gotten MUCH older than their characters by the time that the Rent movie was filmed, I was glad that most of the OBC cast was in the movie. I think the fact that they were all in it made their ages seem less outlandish since as a group they all looked around the same age. But Ben Platt next to Kaitlyn Dever just highlighted how much he does not look like a high school student (which is kind of funny since Kaitlyn is 24, only three years younger than Ben).

[Spartan Girl]

This trailer features a trope I hate: if somebody is trying to tell you something, for the love of God, LET THEM FINISH without cutting in and unintentionally causing them to chicken out of whatever they were going to tell you!

[Irlandesa]

On 5/19/2021 at 1:34 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

I see where you're coming from, but I disagree to some extent. If the film adaptation of a Broadway musical is released in a timely fashion and the stage actors aren't too old for it, then I say go ahead. Many times, however, the actors either age out of the part,

Not only that but it's easier to have someone play younger than they are on stage since they wear a lot of makeup and the audience doesn't usually get close and intimate.  TV and film involve close ups.  There's none of the physical distance of stage.

I think it's the age and the haircut that were cringe worthy about the trailer.

[Wiendish Fitch]

8 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Not only that but it's easier to have someone play younger than they are on stage since they wear a lot of makeup and the audience doesn't usually get close and intimate.  TV and film involve close ups.  There's none of the physical distance of stage.

Definitely agree about that. Theatre is figurative, but film is literal. That's why you can get away with middle-aged women playing Peter Pan on stage, but not on film. It's why the movie version of The Fantasticks was so dreadful (well, on top of everything else).

[methodwriter85]

On 5/18/2021 at 6:41 PM, Wiendish Fitch said:

I almost feel bad for Ben Platt, because everyone is stating the gaping, obvious flaw that he's now much too old to play Evan Hansen onscreen. 

He's 27 which is usually par for the course in Hollywood for AdultTeens but Ben Platt could easily pass for a guy in his mid-30's and it's awkward. I remember thinking he looked like he was in his late 20's when he did an episode of the Will and Grace where he played a young twink.

We had the same problem with Rent, which took almost a decade to be made and what looks okay with twentysomethings doesn't really work with thirtysomethings trying to play twentysomethings. 

They might have been better off just doing a filmed performance like what they did with Jeremy Jordan in Newsies. If they had tried to make an actual movie it would have been really obvious how old Jeremy Jordan is but because they kept it as a filmed staged adaption it worked.

Edited May 23, 2021 by methodwriter85

[starri]

The movie had its debut at TIFF.  The reviews are...not great.

Stephern Chbosky's only other musical experience that I'm aware of is writing the screenplay for Rent, which is also not great.  I'm not sure how directing one, admittedly great, movie about alienated teenagers made him the best choice for this.

I can hand-wave an adult playing a teen.  What I have more of a problem with is that whatever they did to age down Platt actually had the opposite effect.  Didn't ANYONE watch the dailies and realize that?

[AnnMarie17]

We were supposed to see this in our Broadway series last year, but...you know the rest.  We were able to see the film last night and, having very little info about the plot or actors, I really enjoyed it.  Ben's voice is just beautiful and it captured me every time he sang.  The weakest link, for me, was Jualianne Moore.  Besides that her singing and her song itself were terrible (is that song really in the Broadway music???), her love and devotion for her son never ever rang true...I typically enjoy her acting but I spent most of the evening wishing she'd just snap out of it and do better.

I don't predict any acting Oscars for this one, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will download the music soon.  😊

[AngieBee1]

People can say what they will about Platt's looking so much older in the film (he's only a few years older than Kaitlyn Dever and Amandla Stenberg and only one year older than Colton Ryan), but his voice is perfection. In a musical, it really does come down to the performance. 

I watched "Everybody's Talking About Jamie" recently (John McCrea who played the titular role in the original stage run was deemed too old, so he played another part in the film), and yeah, it's great that the lead looked like a teen but the songs, for the most part aren't great. That's more distracting to me. I found Platt to be wonderful in this adaptation. 

[Spartan Girl]

I love how while there’s all this discourse about Evan’s actions, nobody says anything about Alana posting the letter on the internet just to gain more money for the project, even though Evan told her not to. Wasn’t that a messed up thing to do, even if she claimed it was for a good cause? I don’t care that this version tries to humanize her more by having mental health issues, it was still exploitive invasive to Connor’s family. And she ought to have known how social media would social media and use it to trash the parents.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Spartan Girl

[starri]

I'm really unimpressed with Ben's acting, but he does have a really nice singing voice.

 

[Sara2009]

On 9/21/2021 at 2:07 PM, AnnMarie17 said:

We were supposed to see this in our Broadway series last year, but...you know the rest.  We were able to see the film last night and, having very little info about the plot or actors, I really enjoyed it.  Ben's voice is just beautiful and it captured me every time he sang.  The weakest link, for me, was Jualianne Moore.  Besides that her singing and her song itself were terrible (is that song really in the Broadway music???), her love and devotion for her son never ever rang true...I typically enjoy her acting but I spent most of the evening wishing she'd just snap out of it and do better.

I don't predict any acting Oscars for this one, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will download the music soon.  😊

That song is one of the most popular in the Broadway musical. The actress who sang it in the show won the Tony that year. Different strokes I guess.

[starri]

Given the...lukewarm...box office results, it's apparently going to be heading to streaming a few weeks.

[Sara2009]

On 9/24/2021 at 10:45 AM, starri said:

I'm really unimpressed with Ben's acting, but he does have a really nice singing voice.

 

I thought his acting was fantastic in the stage musical, but film is definitely a different beast.

[Chardee MacDennis]

I actually found his acting to be really, really good. I could feel his anxiety through the screen. The way he stood, spoke, fidgeted, it was palpable for me. Mind you I have never seen the broadway show but Ben just blew me away in this. 

[Zonk]

I can't understand all the reviews saying "worst musical movie ever". In fact, if you exclude all the Disney animated movies, this might be one of the best in the last two decades. Let's see off the top of my head:

Cats - worse

Mama Mia - worse (though I love it, guilty pleasure)

Les Mis - worse (though some great songs)

I get the feeling these people just don't like musical movies and just like to pile on.

Musical movies are there to deliver great songs and that this one did, with a competent narrative to string it all together. Only complaint from me is that it is a bit overlong. I'm not sure what I would have cut, but something should have been.

Sadly I live far away from any place where live musicals are performed and if I'd like to see them in their original language, I'd have to take drive (and take a ferry) to another country. So musical movies are basically the only way to get my fix and I'm glad when they are as good as this one. I'm sure it would have been 10 times better on stage, but we can't all live in New York. I never even heard of "Waving through a window" before seeing this movie and it destroys me every time hearing it... in a good way.

On 5/24/2021 at 12:23 AM, methodwriter85 said:

He's 27 which is usually par for the course in Hollywood for AdultTeens but Ben Platt could easily pass for a guy in his mid-30's and it's awkward. I remember thinking he looked like he was in his late 20's when he did an episode of the Will and Grace where he played a young twink.

He really doesn't look that old when you see photos of him. I'd say he passes as Hollywood-movie-teen.

It's just all the choices they made were wrong. They gave him that haircut, to make him look young and it's very:

Also I think they made the choice to put depressed-makeup on him to show how the character feels, but if you have an old dude playing a teenager you don't have the luxury of that choice. Slather him in ten layers of makeup to make his skin look silky smooth!

Also when you see him in photos with his full beard, he looks considerably younger. So I would have said: Fuck it, let him have it in the movie. He's an early bloomer, so what? Maybe even put a spotlight on it with a line from his mom or something.

Like I said: All the wrong choices.

On 9/12/2021 at 5:09 PM, starri said:

I can hand-wave an adult playing a teen.  What I have more of a problem with is that whatever they did to age down Platt actually had the opposite effect.  Didn't ANYONE watch the dailies and realize that?

I wrote the stuff above this quote before I read your post and it seems that we are in agreement. They aged him up instead of aging him down. No idea how they didn't fix that after the first day of shooting.

On 9/21/2021 at 9:07 PM, AnnMarie17 said:

The weakest link, for me, was Jualianne Moore. Besides that her singing and her song itself were terrible (is that song really in the Broadway music???)

I listened to the song on the broadway recording and it's much, much better there. A big part is that the actress there conveys her emotions in the song, while Moore seems to be too preoccupied to sing half way decently to also act on top. It's a bit of a shame.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Zonk

[Fool to cry]

 

 

 

[Zonk]

On 10/13/2021 at 5:27 PM, Fool to cry said:

I really don't think the person got what the problem with that song was. The truck is a central element. It turns from something Evan loves to something that took his father away and he is now afraid of, will take his mother away, too. Of course Moore is going to put emphasis on the word. The original boradway singer did as well. The problem is that this song really isn't super fancy, so the singer has to carry all of it, without any help and Moore just isn't a good enough singer to do that.

But that isn't even the worst part. The poster made another tweet below this one linking to a post of theirs on letterboxd, where they called this user-review "the definitive burn on this film" and uh boy is it ever 'problematic'.

First of all, most of it can be summed up by "a grown man wouldn't act that way and Platt looks like a grown man, therefore I can't believe any of it!". And I always thought I had a problem with suspension of disbelieve. When a movie violates the rules it itself established, like Avangers Endgame with timetravel or a piece of media proports to be based in science, but then just makes up nonsensical stuff, it takes me right out and I can't enjoy it anymore. But that's not the case here. The movie established that Evan is a highschool student, a kid, and so he is. Never was that rule violated anywhere in the movie. I have a feeling these kinds of people wouldn't think twice about 20 logical inconsistencies in a movie, but as soon as an actor has one wrinkle on his face, now that's immersion breaking!

But the really bad part is this:

Quote

dear evan hansen is defiantly terrible, a story tackling mental health for people who make viral twitter posts like "today i learned that eating yogurt is a trauma response,"

Coming from somebody who's only experience with mental illness is most likely a mild generalised anxiety disorder, caused by their helicopter parents, which they can bond with their friends over. Oh, the irony.

"Waving through a window" is probably the most accurate description I've ever heard of growing up not neurotypical. I originally thought I'd quote a few passages here, but honestly, I'd just end up posting all of the lyrics here. There is nothing in that song that isn't completely on point.

While you could argue semantics here, that being atypical is not a mental illness, it is a physical difference in the brain, so a physical disability, it will cause quite a few mental illnesses, since people just don't understand you. And that's not a teenage "nobody understands me", that's a literal "nobody understands me".

I was going to write more, but I don't even know where to begin.

 

On a lighter note, something I just remembered, as I was talking about "Waving through a window", the first two lines are poignant, but as a german also always kinda funny to me: "I've learned to slam on the brake. Before I even turn the key." Yeah, before you turn the key you have to step on the break and the clutch, otherwise you are going to have a bad time. 😄

Edited October 18, 2021 by Zonk

[Camera One]

I just watched it, and after all the horrible reviews I read, the movie really wasn't that bad.  The overall story was engaging enough, and the songs were pretty well staged and transitioned in.  The cast was fine.  I cringed watching the trailer at the weird way they tried to de-age Ben Platt, but once the movie got going, I didn't think about his age much.  None of the people at the high school looked high school age either.  It wasn't too tough to suspend my belief, though they should have just kept him more natural looking.  Contrary to a lot of the reviews, I understood why Evan went along with the lie once it started and didn't hate him for it.  

More specific details from here on out.  I was a bit disappointed they cut "Anybody Have a Map?" and "Disappear", since I like those two songs, though I can see why they did narratively.  I read that the producers cut "Anybody Have a Map?" because wanted us to meet the Murphy's at the same time as Evan, though maybe it's more to do with Julianne Moore not being much of a singer.  I can imagine all the Mom's coming out of their cars to sing this with Evan's mom, but that would probably be too goofy.  "Good For You" would have added too much anger to the end of the movie, though it would have been fun to see; I like songs where multiple characters have parts.  I'm not a huge fan of the glove song, but I liked hearing the actor sing in "No Requiem".  The new songs were kind of weak.   As I said, I thought most of the songs they kept worked, though the second half of the "Words Fail" song where they did a close-up on Evan was a bit awkward to watch.  I also liked the new stuff they added near the end of the movie.  

Anyway, I'm glad they made the movie.  They can always film another one with a brand new cast in 10 years.  Though it would have been interesting they shot every scene again with Andrew Barth Feldman, and we could have enjoyed two versions of the movie.

[Luckylyn]

I haven’t seen it yet because I am waiting for it to go on Peacock.   Still I watched this analysis because  she does commentary I enjoy a lot.

What Went Wrong With Dear Evan Hansen

 

[Spartan Girl]

Watched this on Watchathon. It’s hard to ignore the problematic aspects of the story, but having Evan publicly out himself and getting shunned doesn’t really work for me. I mean most of his school area didn’t care about Connor when he was alive, he just became the cause celebrity because people were projecting their own experiences of anxiety and depression on to him, even Alana (though the movie tries to water down her character by having her be more well intentioned).

And while it was good for Evan to send the family Connor’s video, I don’t think he needed to send it to Alana or that other kid. Using the video for the Connor Project was just as tacky as Alana posting the note. Merely my opinion.

I’m supposed to see the state show in a few weeks, which everyone says is better for reasons stated above. Looking forward to it.