(For Day 24 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write a poem reviewing something that is not normally reviewed, so I imagined someone’s spiraling falsehoods being rated by their own mind.)

You’re doing it, dude.
You’re making it sell.
A lie gets you high
If you’re telling it well.

And there goes another!
That’s some web you weave.
It’s quite the art form
When the experts deceive.

A nine out of ten,
If I’m giving a score.
Just hold your eye contact
A little bit more.

A quick feigned offense,
And she bought it again.
There’s no way she knows
It’s a ten out of ten!

You can’t pull out now
When you’ve lasted this long.
A lie can be right
If you don’t mind the wrong.

The greatest of lies
Are built from ideals,
Which obviously
Are the hardest reveals.
____________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I saw this movie musical in the theater a year and a half ago, and I just couldn’t quite bring myself to review it. Based on the Tony-winning musical by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul of The Greatest Showman fame, Dear Evan Hansen was yet another movie musical adaptation to flop at the box office, without even the critical praise that In the Heights had. I’ve heard people rip this movie apart and complain about how it portrays mental illness or how star Ben Platt is too old to be playing a high school student, and I seem to be in the minority in not sharing those common objections. Yet the film is rather disappointing, even for a lover of movie musicals like me, just for reasons I can’t quite pin down.

I also had the privilege of seeing a touring production of the stage musical after seeing the film, so I have something to compare it to now. The plot is fairly faithful with anxious teenager Evan Hansen (Platt) barely navigating high school as he writes daily letters to himself, according to his therapist’s advice. One of these letters ends up in the possession of the volatile Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), who commits suicide, leaving his parents (Amy Adams, Danny Pino) and sister (Kaitlyn Dever) to believe Connor wrote the note to Evan. Evan can’t bring himself to contradict the despondent family and instead plays into the narrative of him and Connor being close friends.

I recall wryly asking one of my friends if he wanted to go see “a depressing musical” when the film came out. Dear Evan Hansen is heavy stuff, dealing with mental illness, suicide, familial resentment, and desperate grief, which is part of what made it such a powerful and relatable hit on Broadway. Clearly, the themes that worked on stage didn’t quite translate as well to film, yet the weaknesses of the film were baked into the story, in my view. Platt is a fantastic actor and singer (whose age didn’t bother me a bit), but there’s something inherently unrealistic about his socially graceless character being able to convince this family of his untruth, even if Connor’s mother practically goads him into it. It leads to some extremely cringy moments where Evan’s awkwardness is too hard to overlook. The songs are meant to smooth that suspension of disbelief, but again there’s a disconnect between him belting out “For Forever” in the Murphys’ dining room as opposed to an open stage with a large audience.

Pasek and Paul’s pop-influenced music is the best thing about the film, and I’m personally glad that Platt was able to bring the character he helped create to the big screen. His performances of the inspirational “You Will Be Found” or the devastating “Words Fail” show his incredible vocal and emotional range, and, despite not typically being a singer, Julianne Moore as Evan’s mom Heidi excels with “So Big / So Small,” a deeply poignant expression of motherly love. Amy Adams and Kaitlyn Dever are likewise only used for one song, but both deliver strong acting performances, that feel both genuine and oddly unrealistic at times. Fans of the musical were naturally disappointed by the removal of songs like “Disappear” and “Anybody Have a Map?”, especially when the new addition “The Anonymous Ones” is serviceable at best. At least they kept “Sincerely, Me” to retain the one lighthearted song in the story.

Dear Evan Hansen isn’t a bad film and in fact has a number of very powerful moments and performances, as well as an outstanding soundtrack. Its story just feels half-baked when brought from the distance of a stage to the intimacy of a camera close-up. Some rewrites and testing screenings might have benefited it, but I can’t bring myself to dislike it as much as so many do. It’s far from the strongest musical of 2021, but it still gave me all the intended feels.

Best line: (Heidi, singing to Evan) “Your mom is staying right here. No matter what, I’ll be here when it all feels so big till it all feels so small.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2023 S.G. Liput
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