By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Starring: Amandla Stenberg | Amy Adams | Ben Platt | Colton Ryan | Danny Pino | Julianne Moore | Kaitlyn Dever
Country: japan, united_states
Year: 2022
Running time: 137
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9357050/reference
Thom says: “It is difficult reviewing this film for many reasons. Certainly, there is no questioning the credentials of director Chbosky, who was responsible for the 2012 top-rated THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER. DEAR EVAN HANSEN, the film, is an adaptation of the Tony & Grammy-award winning musical that was a big hit on Broadway. And here’s the thing, while I have always felt that music was the true gift of the Gods, Broadway musical songs have generally been one of my least favourite music genres, but the songs here are lovely, invigorating, even exciting and they totally drew me into the proceedings. The book is about the lonely, disenfranchised, medicated, the teens with Social Anxiety Disorder and our hero (who can sing a beautiful song at the drop of a hat) is inflicted with it, but embraces a huge lie about the suicide of his tormentor, who stole an exercise letter (that Evan’s psychoanalyst had assigned him for getting to the root of his disorder), to get closer to the boy’s parents, and sister, who Evan is apparently hopelessly in love with. There was a lot of critical claptrap about Ben Platt, at 27, being far too old to tackle the lead (age 17), but he played Evan on Broadway to great critical acclaim, he’s in great voice for his showstoppers, and in comparison, how many actors have played either Romeo or Juliet anywhere near the supposed age of that tragic pair? There are many rich parts for a huge teen cast, and it was charming to see Julianne Moore (as Evan’s overwrought mom) & Amy Adams (as the mother of the suicide boy) get a chance to show off their vocal talents. Too often I drifted into thinking I was watching a double episode from Riverdale or 13 Reasons Why, but I can always get into a good teen story. The film was also at least 20 minutes too long. One mystery to me was not finding any screen credit for the actor that played Amy Adams’ husband. Does anyone know why? Lovely musical numbers are charmingly presented. 3.5 cats“