Review of Dear Evan Hansen (2021) by Mattyice — 27 Sep 2021

As good as much of the music was in the original Broadway show, it had backbreaking issues in its story and lead character. The film somehow manages to not only fail to address these major problems but exacerbates them to levels I didn't think were possible.

Dear Evan Hansen is a morally perverted movie with a repugnant message. Ben Platt (in spite of being a good singer and the original lead in the show) is horribly out of place amongst actors who look way younger than him, which adds an even greater sense of uneasiness to Evan's harrowing actions throughout the story.

Finally, the film makes a total mockery of mental health, anxiety, and suicide in one of the most sickening ways I've seen. Without spoiling too much, the story is poor at best, and predatory and sadistic at worst.

It's no Cats in that its production design is ok, but the absolutely nauseating message, plot, lead, and treatment of major societal issues makes this adaptation very hard to swallow and makes me question how this disgusting show managed to win a Tony.

Giving it anything other than a zero would be a moral failure on my part.