Review: DEAR EVAN HANSEN, Universal Pictures (Film)

Photo credit: Universal Pictures

The hotly anticipated musical film of the stage show Dear Evan Hansen has finally hit our shores!  Released into cinemas UK wide on 22 October 2021, this film is hard hitting and very relevant to the mental health crisis we are currently experiencing.  Dear Evan Hansen first arrived on the Broadway stage in 2015, starring Ben Platt, who reprises the lead role in the film.

Platt plays the part beautifully with raw emotion.  His portrayal of a socially awkward high school student with mental health issues is first class.  His vocals during the opening number of ‘Waving Through a Window’ are incredible and as the film progresses, it is clear to see why he is the perfect choice to bring this character to life on the big screen.

The stellar cast, including Julianne Moore as Heidi Hansen, Amy Adams as Cynthia Murphy and Kaitlyn Dever as Zoe Murphy, give heartfelt performances throughout the film.  Their singing is also strong, however some of the songs appear to start awkwardly and felt very “musical” in their commencement during speaking dialogue.

Dear Evan Hansen centres on the story of Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan) who takes his own life due to his own mental health struggles.  Evan Hansen becomes embroiled in a lie over their friendship that helped comfort the family of Murphy, but also lead to their disappointment in his lies.  Evan Hansen is also struggling with his own mental health issues but he becomes the talk of the school during a memorial for Murphy when his awkward and toe-curling speech ended in a quite beautiful rendition of ‘You Will be Found’, which was filmed by many students.  This inevitably ended up online and went viral around the world.  This shows the power of social media and how it can be used for good, however, it also showed the negative side of social media when the truth came out.

There are only eight songs in the film version as opposed to the stage production whern there are many more.  There is a new song written for the film, ‘The Anonymous Ones’, performed by the character Alana Beck (Amandla Stenberg), which explains her own mental health issues, despite being a high achiever at school and having a seemingly perfect existence as far as Evan Hansen is concerned.

The film is not all doom and gloom however, with a wonderfully light-hearted version of ‘Sincerely, Me’ performed by Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), Jared Kalwani (Nik Dodani) and Evan Hansen (Ben Platt).  

Overall, it is a thought-provoking film with many important issues raised, however it falls slightly short with the song placement at times.

**** Four stars

Reviewed by: Emma Rowley

Dear Evan Hansen is in cinemas now.