Dear Evan Hansen: thank you for moving so gracefully to the big screen. All you had to be today was you, and it’s more than enough.
The 46th Toronto International Film Festival chose Dear Evan Hansen, the new musical drama based on the Tony-winning stage show, as its opening night film because it’s a story, as TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey said, about “communication and connection.”
Given that both of those are key themes for the 2021 festival, Evan Hansen the film is an appropriate choice. And I’m pleased to say that appropriate choices make this an outstanding adaptation for the silver screen. So good, in fact, the movie is even better than the Broadway show its based on.
Focusing on high school senior Evan Hansen (Ben Platt), what starts as a bad day with a letter being stolen from him turns into tragedy when a classmate (Colton Ryan) commits suicide. When confronted about a misunderstanding, Evan accidentally finds himself in the middle of a lie that he was a secret best friend - turning his life upside down.
When Oakville News reviewed the 2019 stage show production for Mirvish theatres (which, oddly, opened just one city block from another Mirvish theatre where the film’s world premiere is now being held), I said the show had a engaging story that was too emotionally taxing to be fully satisfying.
The scale, score, realism and narrative devices have all been retooled to make both the plot feel warmer and most of the main characters more trustworthy. Director Stephen Chobsky (TIFF 2012’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wonder) knew exactly which key changes needed to be made for the story's authenticity to best come through on camera.
While specific details like some names, exact relationships and the final song list are different from the source stage show, the plot is almost exactly identical.
What’s more significant are the changes in how the premise is set up (including Evan’s character now trying harder to avoid his “big lie”) and the climactic motivations (especially Alana’s, played brilliantly by Amandla Stenberg.)
The adaptation’s greatest success is creating new settings and acting beats to, even though most of the story’s events are the same, make it easier for the audience to be more empathetic to Evan and the ensemble.
Having seen both versions, I can affirm the movie is much more effective at getting audiences to understand and accept why most characters are lying to each other - even though we don’t agree with what they do, we understand their grief deeper and recognize they’re on track to making wrongs right.
This new strategy, including a new ending holding Evan more accountable to the mess he makes, each partially thanks to director Chbosky, screenwriter (and original stage book writer) Steven Levinson and star Platt.
Platt, by the way, is a revelation. He’s giving one of the most grounded, technical resonant and beautiful performances of the year. He also plays age 17 surprisingly well, and you can see why his performance was so essential to the film.
Yet knowing that the creative team was willing to make these necessary enhancements to the story, making most of the emotionally charged and debatably mean character choices softer and more palatable, I’d argue they should have gone one step further with the Murphy family.
Early on, Cynthia (Amy Adams) and Larry (a career-best Danny Pino) each show heavy denial in their son’s death, and their bad habits don’t really get addressed until a scene near the end. Despite going through the loss of a child, the clearly overwhelming privilege and financial comfort they and their son Connor have has always been a tricky plot point.
Given that so many details were re-examined for the film, the class privilege and high status of the Murphys should have been looked at too - it’s the last serious barrier to general audiences connecting with these characters. It also makes the film’s handling of mental health more truthful and less like a Hollywood studio cashing in on a trending subject.
These are just small concerns. As a whole, the film is breathtaking and a strong balance between emotional connection and concrete ideas. This is the balance that great cinema strives to be.
Having a deeper background and context for why Evan behaves the way he does and how he changes creates better drama and a richer payoff by the time he sings “Words Fail” - it reduced me to tears. That early, song-free exposition does go on a bit long, but the film more than makes up for it after the first half hour.
Speaking of the music, it’s as terrific as it was expected to be. And like most aspects, the songs (and their staging) play better on screen than they did on stage.
Truly, Dear Evan Hansen likely belonged in the movies right from the beginning. His promise that “You Will Be Found” is now coming true, with a way for audiences to find the best parts of this story. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen this year and one of the best musicals in a long time.
Dear Evan Hansen
8 out of 10
PG, 2hrs 17mins. Musical Drama.
Directed by Stephen Chobsky.
Starring Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, Amandla Stenberg, Danny Pino and Julianne Moore.
Dear Evan Hansen releases in local cinemas and in theatres worldwide on September 24, 2021.
Want to read reviews for more TIFF films? Reviews for more than 100 titles this year are and/or will be available here on Tyler Collins' personal website throughout the festival.
