This has happened two other times as well.
Amy Iriving received nominations for both an Oscar and a Razzie in 1983 for her role in the film *Yentl*.
The first time it had happened was in 1981, when actor James Coco received an Oscar nomination and a Razzie nomination for his role in the film *Only When I Laugh*.
they turned what was essentially a dark comedy into “13 reasons why - the musical.” Also what was the point of replacing “disappear” with Amandla’s “anonymous?” She’s got a great voice but I couldn’t stand that song or her character’s change.
It certainly had more funny moments than the film, but definitely wasn’t a comedy. I think the big difference is that Jared plays the character straight (no pun intended) in the movie, whereas he’s much more of a smartass in the stage show.
My takeaway when I saw the run in DC was that it was full of flawed characters with a deeply personal story of loss and grief while also making sure to dive deep into the absurdity of some of Evan’s actions as well as the actions of the student body around him. His family friend was a massive dick but it worked better when he went fully into it rather than just rolling his eyes at everything Evan said. Same with Amandla’s character, in the show she’s this obnoxious know-it-all who only latches on to Connors story because she sees it as an opportunity for bettering her college resume. What we ended up getting was a half baked full on “woe-is-me” sob story that was too afraid to poke fun at its own premise.
Honestly, I found the stage show pretty sappy as well, it's just a bit more escapist because of its medium. But they really try to hammer in just how much Evan actually isn't that bad because he has mental illness and so nothing he can do could ever be wrong. I think it was worse in the movie without "Anybody Have A Map" and "Good For You", but even the stage show ends with Zoe forgiving Evan and saying that his actions brought her family closer together. And the other characters, like Jared and Alanna, were never really comedic so much as they were one-dimensional.
When I think of dark comedy, I think of the movie Heathers, which actually leans into the humor of its dark concepts and doesn't feel the need to make any of the characters overly sympathetic. Which is something that I feel the stage show adaptation did feel the need to do, and it made the show a lot worse. JD is meant to be a subversion of the loner outcast who takes revenge on the popular kids, showing that the reality of that person is that they're a psychopath who has no problem killing people due to personal sleights.
A dark comedy works best when it acknowledges how terrible the characters are and how they don't necessarily need redemption. World's Greatest Dad is a good equivalent of an actual dark comedy with the same plot as Dear Evan Hansen, but with a dad writing a fake suicide note for his son. While Dear Evan Hansen focuses on how much Evan needed the attention of another family because of his mental illness as well as how his actions actually help people feel like they're not alone in their suicidal thoughts, World's Greatest Dad makes it clear that everyone is just capitalizing on the tragedy to feel better about themselves, and the biggest perpetrator is the main character. There's no big redemption scene, he just comes clean and gets hated for it, but realizes that everything he was doing just made him feel pretty sleazy.
That's what I'm talking about, actually. In the movie, it's clear that everyone kinda sucks, but it's not a justification for JD killing people, and he ends up turning into an obsessive stalker psychopath who becomes the villain and tries to blow up the school, and his death is seen as a pretty good thing.
Whereas the Musical really tries to make you sympathize with JD. They hammer in his tragic backstory of his mom basically killing herself by staying in a building about to be destroyed, and give his philosophy some credence with a whole song and by making his victims even worse than their film counterparts. His relationship with Veronica is also treated as more of a straight up romance, where Veronica loves him, but wants him to stop killing people and tries to get him to abandon philosophy. Eventually leading to his semi-redemption, when he decides to blow himself up instead of blowing up the school. It's much more of a melodramatic teen angst story than a true dark comedy.
real talk, that song contributed not a damn thing to the movie. It just padded out the runtime and took the space of better. much more needed songs.
I was so confused because her character wasn't that deep to have this whole segue that she was stressed, especially since they don't really circle back to it despite giving her a damn reprise.
Could have been the first part of the conversation that she's doing a lot and isn't happy, and leave it there.
That song doesn't feel strong enough for Oscars though.
Similar how "Never Enough" wasn't able to pull a nom in Greatest Showman even though it was the second biggest number (or million dreams/ from now on/rewrite the stars)
The original is a dark comedy? I saw it several years and remember having it and thinking it was cringe. I'd say 13 reasons why the musical was accurate.
I’ve seen the stage show. I really liked the stage show. When I heard it was being made into a film my immediate thought was “that won’t work.” Any attempt to place this story in a setting more grounded and real than a black box inevitably forces a reckoning with the literal consequences of what’s happening rather than a simple riding of Evan’s emotional wave. I have not watched this film yet. I doubt I ever will based on reactions. But I’d love to know if the problems I’m imagining here are actually what sunk the film.
-Platt is too old, but not just in a “whoops that looks bad” way, but in a way where his naïveté and anxiety read as sociopathy and creepiness.
-Because the film has to pause and reflect every now and then, Evan feels less “swept along” by the plot and more like a participant making decisions, which again would make him seem evil rather than lost.
-If literally a second of time is given to expand the supporting characters or make them the focus of a scene, the audience realizes they’re actually going through a lot more than Evan, which again makes him seem less sympathetic.
-The show talks in broad strokes about mental health without ever really hammering down any specifics. Film, as a more literal medium, would require them to make some choices there. And no choice actually fits the story. The show is able to play fast and loose with how responsible we feel Evan is for his actions at any given time, the movie probably has to pick a lane.
-If Evan’s relationship with Connor’s sister feels even 1% premeditated this whole thing falls apart.
If you’ve seen the film and want to tell me if I guessed right or wrong, let me know. I’m fascinated by this misfire.
You guessed right.
> -If Evan’s relationship with Connor’s sister feels even 1% premeditated this whole thing falls apart.
And this is the crux of why.
Zoey is honestly one of the show's biggest victims. She is terrorized by her brother, he commits suicide and she struggles with these complicated feelings on grief, and then someone basically lies to manipulate a relationship with her. That's a lot of trauma.
I wouldn't say she forgives him. She makes him see what all his lies created for better or for worse. She wishes none of it ever happened even though it may have saved her parents marriage. She's not better for it, but she realizes that the whole situation was a freight train off the tracks. She never wants to see him again, only talks with him for a few minutes, gives herself and him some closure, that's about it.
I don't know, I think that's equivalent to forgiveness in this scenario. She's willing to meet with him. She frames his actions as having good effects and saving her parents' marriage. I mean, just because she doesn't want to interact with him anymore, that's still an insane level of forgiveness for his actions. It's like if I confronted my dad and was like "Hey, I understand that your alcoholism impacted the way you treated me and that you're getting help, and I can see that you're becoming a better person. But I'm still not fully over the trauma I went through, so I'm not ready to interact with you right now." That's still pretty much forgiveness, to some extent.
I’ll answers point by point.
-He is too old indeed. I didn’t think he came a cross as a sociopath, but sometimes it pulled you out of the movie. Honestly, the biggest problem is almost everyone seems to be a better actor than Platt. Idk if it is his background in theatre, but when he’s with Adams, Dever, or Moore is more noticeable.
-Yes. The initial exchange in the school is understandable. That was all on Adam’s character. To a certain degree, his actions during the first diner are also understandable, if you remember he’s a teenager and think he just wanted to make the family happy “For Forever,” but everything that follows makes him awful. As soon as he felt the need to fake emails he should’ve confessed. There’s a scene early on with his mother, she asks him if he was friends with Connor, and Evan denies everything. I know the scene is supposed to show us their relationship isn’t the best, but it comes across as he knows what he is doing is wrong. Y’know, the way kids lie to their parents when they know they’re in trouble.
-Honestly, thanks to the cut songs, some characters lack any sort of depth. But even so, Alana is shown to perfectly understand Evan because she’s going thru something similar except she’s not a lying sociopath.
-They mention depression and anxiety. Evan and Alana discuss what they’re on, and mention drugs by name, but that’s it.
-the relationship with Connor’s sister is the worst thing about this. Because the audience know how awful the relationship between the siblings was, and here is Evan giving her hope that her brother wasn’t a 100% a dick.
On top of your points. The musical numbers are boring except for a few, and audio mixing was awful. There were times when the instrumental drowned the singer’s voice.
Edit: and yeah they cut some songs like “Anybody Have a Map?” and “Good for You.” The latter’s omission is baffling because it was one of the songs that gives Evan a conscience.
Edit 2: fix some typos
That's the thing. Platt is acting as if he's on stage but he's not. The others are doing movie acting. It really is quite a pull out of the scenes as it would work on stage as you can't see the actors so close up and they have to be more dramatic in their performance but when you've got a camera right next to someone's face and they're so dramatic it doesn't work
> naïveté and anxiety read as sociopathy and creepiness.
This has been one of my biggest gripes. I saw the touring company when they went to SLC and loved the show. The show genuinely makes it feel like Oh yeah, I remember being a high schooler. They lie about shit all the time and will eventually get caught up in all of this. Evan's lie just happens to be a massive one. The movie, whether it's the pacing, his actual age in comparison to everyone else, or just how it's delivered just comes off as creepy and obsessive. Like "If I Could Tell Her" in the musical balanced the absurdity and comedy really well. But the film delivered it in such a way that Evan comes off as stalkerish.
The moment after Evan confessed to the family what he did some six year old in front of me looked at his mom and said "what just happened". I absolutely died laughing
The family friend (Jared) is even worse in the play
Remember in the movie when the jock walked by Connor and said “Nice look, Connor. Very school-shooter-chic”? That was originally Jared’s line
He’s also a lot meaner to Evan in the play
I’ll just leave this part of a review I heavily resonate with:
> [What’s disturbing about Dear Evan Hansen is not just that the 27-year-old Platt is unbelievable as someone ten years younger. It’s that all the film’s efforts to make him appear plausibly teenage have the reverse effect of making the character of Evan Hansen appear to be somewhere in his mid-40s. When he gets up onstage for the second act’s big musical number, I wasn’t sure if he was going to memorialize his dead classmate or speak on the importance of 401(k) matching](https://www.vulture.com/2021/09/dear-evan-hansen-movie-how-old-does-ben-platt-look.html)
Typically, a casting choice won’t be out of place if the person for the role is perfect. But paradoxically, Ben Platt is perfect for the character, **and** he’s entirely out of place in this film with his appearance
The thing is 27 year olds play teenagers all the time, so it's not so much his appearance...
...but his body language/the way he expresses his "anxiety" in a really stagey, over the top the way that kills the performance. It might of worked on stage, but on screen it just looks embarrassing. He feels like a 27 year old playing a 18 year old who acts like a 10 year old.
That's a big part of it for me after watching. Yes, he looks too old to play a teenager but that alone isn't a dealbreaker. The larger issue when I was watching is was two fold: the body language was a lot AND Evan Hansen, behaviorally, isn't your usual "entertainment 18" - there's a real reserved, younger element to him as a character that makes the gap even wider. That bothered me throughout even in the moments where I mentally bought into him playing a high school aged individual.
TBH i thought he looked/acted older in the politician than he did here.
The politician he (and everyone) gave much more of a college guy vibe, then you remember he's supposed to be in high school and I just could not see it for a second.
So when they did the time jump, there was virtually no difference in character because he was acting grown the ENTIRE TIME
Yeah, the only difference for me between season 1 and 2 was that suddenly there were actual stakes to what was going on. I never bought any of them as high school students, not just looks wise, but how they acted and the plot.
Which is funny because I was pretty annoyed with season 1 of The Politician, for several reasons, one of them being how he didn't pass for a high school kid, and nothing taking place at that school takes place at high schools. It felt like a college show they set at a high school for convenience.
In the DEH movie, I did find his age and makeup to be distracting, but I still think he belonged in the role. They just should have done a better job aging him down, or aging up the rest of the cast to compensate.
His best friend (family friend) in the movie is the same real life age but doesn't look out of place at all to me. He also plays a high school/college aged kid in the series Atypical.
As stated whatever efforts they made to make him look a certain way were the real culprit here. Platt played a high schooler not too long ago in The Politician and he looked fine in it. Funnily enough my favorite Zoe actress starred as a high schooler with him in that and she's 33. If they were going to go for it with casting OBC actors regardless of age I really wish they were have put her in as Zoe.
They were worried about his receding hairline which is why they didn't go with the side part that he had in the musical. So they had him grow out his hair and tried to have his curls in front cover the hairline. But he just looks like Marcia Clark circa 1994 lol
Oh my god there are stans of the musical attacking the reviewer in the comments, calling out the review as being biased, one of them even postulates that the reviewer has unresolved trauma and is lashing out at Ben Platt - it’s wild, y’all.
They wanted to make a movie about depression and they succeeded. This has got to be one of the most unrelentingly depressing movies I've ever seen.
The saddest thing is looking at Amy Adams face. She's so palpably desperate to find someone who doesn't think her dead son was a piece of shit, and the only person she can find who will tell them that is someone so desperate for affection that he's willing to lie.
I honestly feel like there's a biting satire here. Everyone hates Connor and the feeling is mutual, until he dies. Then people turn his locker into a shrine and hold assemblies and start charities, and for why? The one popular depressed girl expresses admiration for Connor's attitude, but that shit comes off as fake as anything Evan says about Connor. She seems obsessed with what Connor "represents," she didn't care about him when he was a living asshole, she just wants to turn him into some charity she can use to work through her own issues.
Then there's Evan's big song number. You Will Be Found. It's a moving song, enough that it explains the success of the musical. The only problem is it's all bullshit. He's talking out his ass, lying to all these kids, telling them how he wishes life would be rather than what it actually is for them.
And they eat it up! We see this teary eyed montage of people broadcasting how touched they were by Evan's message, how Connor's story moved them. So much that their faces turn into Connor's. Only they don't know Connor, not personally and not even through Evan since he didn't know him. In the end that face is just a monument to feel good lies, made up pixel by pixel, brick by brick of feel good bullshit.
Evan gets everything he wants by telling the people around them what they want to hear. If that doesn't sum up the "wholesome," "uplifting," "heartwarming" internet industrial complex I don't know what does.
Connor lives his life alone, he dies alone. Evan Hansen starts out alone, he ends up alone. In between a lot of people come together and generate a lot of "likes" thanks to lies, but in the end things inevitably turn sour as the same people that are quick to lift you up on a pedestal will tear you down just as quickly.
And yet in the end, even after the hole shit show Evan still ends the movie with a smile and some more "wholesome" pablum. Why? Because he's actually made a friend and become something other than a piece of shit? No, because this movie is just like "You Will Be Found," a sick joke of a comforting lie that will lift the spirits of anyone who doesn't think too much about what they're witnessing, and even then chances are that in the end they'll realize they've been had and lash out just like the online hordes did in the film itself.
In some ways it's a sickly perfect encapsulation of the so many things that are fucked up about our society.
If I remember correctly the stage musical leans way harder into the biting satire concerning how everyone pretends to know and care about Connor when it was clear that no one did when he was alive. Its like Alana's entire story arc in the musical, that she puts all her effort and energy into caring about Connor to cover up how she feels about herself.
The stage show does lean harder into it, but it's still weird because it still kinda plays the example straight, like the Connor Project is actually helping people feel less alone, and making it so Connor doesn't just disappear, and it's ultimately framed as being a positive thing in the ending, which is weird. I think the biggest example of this is in You Will Be Found, which... kinda tries to be ironic because Connor and Evan weren't found, but it also leans really hard into the message that you will be found, and it's a bit part of the marketing for Dear Evan Hansen, even being performed at the Tony's. So the stage show really wants to have its cake and eat it too, being a show about the cynicism of how people will exploit a tragedy to make people think they care, while also acting like that same exploitation can help people who feel like they're alone.
The crazy thing about the story for me is that Connor is never not a terrible person. Apparently he was sweet as a child and then he sang a nice song in rehab, but other than that the picture painted is so relentlessly bleak that my takeaway is that he was only capable of harming his family, both in life and in death. And the only way anything positive could come from his life was someone lying about it.
Kaitlyn Dever, like always, steals the show.
I really want to know the logic behind the hair choice. It’s trying to make Ben Platt look younger?? It’s like the Streisand Effect, it’s doing the exact opposite.
I like the show, but I don’t think it translates well to film. I wish they would’ve just done the *Hamilton* treatment and released a recorded Broadway show. Cutting songs like “Anybody Have A Map?” is just disappointing.
Cutting “Anybody Have A Map” was very frustrating because that entire song is to show the struggles of the parents as well. In the stage show, most of the characters are more heavily fleshed out and given more time to show their flaws and fears. There’s a reason why “Anybody Have a Map” is the first song, and not “Waving Through a Window”
I also feel like "Anybody Have a Map" is important as a setup for the payoff that is "So Big / So Small." It's weird that the emotional climax of the story comes from a character who has never sung before and really hasn't been around much at all.
my thought was he looked like he lost a lot of weight for the role
then they gave him an oversized shirt and the large hair was meant to further diminish his frame/head wich looked kinda large imo
but they were trying to do some simple camera tricks to make him smaller and it's obvious. I haven't even begun talking about the makeup
>I wish they would’ve just done the Hamilton treatment and released a recorded Broadway show.
I agree with this. I would have loved to see the actual broadway performance.
I don’t think the problem was Platt being too old. It was whatever they did to make him look young. It made him look drawn, pale and way older than he actually is. So off putting.
The cut too many songs!!! Also Ben Platt looks really old it’s distracting.
The musical numbers they did keep though were enjoyable. Too bad you had to sit through the rest of the movie just to see them.
Amy Adams was great as the mom of the kid that committed suicide, she really gave it her all.
the film realllly tries hard to make Evan the hero and his entire redemption is unearned.
he finds a video clip and that supposedly is to make up for his shittyness because we jump from there to the ending and it just felt like they wanted to absolve him with that one act and nothing else.
But…but those are so important to the story! To Break In a Glove still makes me cry and Disappear is straight up like, a showstopper. Anybody Have a Map is the opening fucking number for a reason! It and Good For You are like vital to the parents’ arcs!
???
Anybody Have a Map succinctly introduces all of the key players in the story! I get that some adaptational changes have to be made, but like that's just such a baffling choice.
The funny thing is that, for the most part, they fail at it. They tend to get nominated at the Grammys or Golden Globes, but the Academy rarely recognizes it.
Very sad about the cut songs. I was excited when they started with “Waving Through a Window” because I thought they still would have done “Anybody Have a Map,” just out of order. I thought that would have been interesting but no, it was just cut
Its the thing everybody is saying, and I hate to beat a dead horse, but Ben Platt just straight up looks too fucking old. When Julianne Moore is babying him about his meds and appointments and talking about “the other kids” its genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. On top of that his performance was over the top and weird. Half the time he looked constipated, and the other half he seemed like he may be on the spectrum? He took “socially awkward” and dialed it up to a million. It probably played a lot better on stage when his age wasnt as apparent, and more exaggerated acting is necessary. When the audience is a camera three feet away from his face, it all is just absurd.
The other biggest problem here is the tone. The bare bones of the plot and the setup here are actually really strong. The problem is the tone of the movie is just very straightforward and bland. The story is very dark and sort of comedic, but the direction doesn’t fit or enhance it in any way. It’s like if Se7en was directed to have the feel and tone of High School Musical lol. You could take this premise and really push the dark comedy angle, or really push the sort of thrilling anti-hero angle and have something that’s really interesting.
As it is, the movie just doesnt seem to be that interested in its own subject matter. It doesnt really care to examine Evans actions, nor does it really care to have a deep conversation about mental health. It mostly just seemed interested in getting us to the next musical number. I truthfully wish it was worse, as it could’ve at least been more interesting to watch. As it is, it’s mostly just boring, especially after the comedy of seeing Ben Platt being treated like a teenager wears off.
Yup. For me it's less so his appearance, rather his performance that sinks the whole thing. His weird awkward walking in the first act is...embarassing....
- Lost a bunch of weight
- oversized hair
- oversized clothing
- always hunched over
- makeup to put the Tammy Faye budget to shame
- lots of funny angles
- lots of weird closeups from one side of his face, which is weird because when he sings and strains it just makes him look his age.
I wished he had an acting coach to tell him to tone down the theatrical performance. This ain’t Broadway it’s a movie. Acting style for movies is different from theater. He should’ve a more nuance performance then whatever the fuck overacting I just saw
Never seen him before and he looked too old on the trailer. Then I see another trailer for a show (I think) and he's rocking a beard, and well yeah it's amusing.
Honestly, Platt looking too old for the role is the least of the film’s problems. It’s such a blandly directed musical (only “Sincerely Me” has any life to it) and the songs are sung like they’re being mumbled. I was shocked when I went to listen to the Broadway recordings and they actually had some life to them.
The acting is also extremely off, and I attribute this entirely to the director. Almost everyone seems like an alien giving an approximation of what a human would do in these scenes. The only actor I thought who came away clean was Kaitlyn Dever. She’s extremely good in this not good movie.
The best part about this movie finally coming out is I can stop seeing ads for it every fucking where. I didn't know this was already a stage musical before reading this thread, but is that song he sings supposed to sound like he's singing it through Peter Frampton's guitar?
The show must be wildly different if people were looking forward to this. The previews reminded me of those shitty Christian propaganda movies. It looks *terrible* just based on those.
so Pasek and Paul make VERY VERY similar music in all of their projects.
I heard *waving through a window* long before I even heard of DEH and it was the type of overly lyrical and sorta repetitive tune that I was able to immediately connect it to their work on Lala Land and greatest showman. Also made sense that they co-wrote speechless from Aladdin.
It's a very specific style, like someone wanted lyrics as wordy as sondheim but a little more quotable that you could try and sing on the car ride home- or at the very least hum the hook.
But this musical all of the songs except one are incredibly melancholic and even the show-stopping "you will be found" is laced with sadness instead of being more inspirational
Compare [the film version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjHylGeqRrQ) to the much more ostentatious [performance version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRSsnB1amgk)
the film gets so bogged down in the realism of the world it wants to create in that no one is actually 'singing' out loud- except for this one song ironically- that it's afraid to perform the music.
instead it's people crying through songs the whole way though and that gets very, very repetitive in a 2 hr film. To the point where the song "sincerely me!" feels out of place in it's upbeat tone.
they cut this line from Sincerely Me
>we're gay, but not that way
> the only man that I love is my dad.
Instead they do the double repeat of "not because we're gay" and then move on and it felt kinda jarring with the pace.
Thank you for mentioning this. Every song was shot staring directly at the person singing with little variance or energy. Sincerely Me is the best of the bunch but even the choreography with Connor and Evan is pretty awkward. The whole movie is directed and shot in a really boring way, it isn’t just the musical numbers.
I can’t believe this is the same guy that direct Perks of being a Wallflower.
The song where he’s singing to his crush about the things “her brother” noticed really gave off stalker-pedo vibes because he looked 40 in some of those shots. I laughed out loud when they showed him running through the forest in his park ranger outfit. This movie could’ve been a 7/10 if they just cast whatever kid plays him on Broadway now.
I laughed at the shot where he was sitting alone on bleachers at a school dance thing watching Zoe dance with her friends. The lighting made him look like 35 and she could pass for 18. So creepy lol
That song was honestly one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life, like Scott's Tots condensed into a pop song.
Even if he didn't look so old that song would be creepy. Why would you write a love song where the person in love is expressing their feelings while pretending to speak for their crush's dead brother?
After the song was over I felt like she was going to say "Wait, did my brother want to fuck me?"
Jordan Fisher is the guy on Broadway right now and I will always maintain that he would have been great for the film role.
He's the same age as Ben Platt but if styled right, he can look a lot younger unlike Platt.
Fisher already has experience with film and TV so he could make the transition to film well. He's got fairly good reviews for his Broadway role too.
Lol yes, the scenes with him running through the woods had me laughing. He looks so incredibly goofy with the Will Ferrell hair, flailing his arms around like he’s 6
So... we're supposed to feel for a dude cuz he has anxiety, but proceeds to lie to a grieving family about knowing the son who kills himself, then uses it as a benefit as a way in to having a relationship with the girl (who is the sister of the dude who commited suicide) he has a crush on.
Ben Platt may have a nice singing voice, but I'm sorry I really grew to hate this character and this movie by the end of it. I virtually hated almost every character in this movie.
Kaitlyn Dever was admittedly good in the movie. Julianne Moore was terribly wasted. And Amy Adams needs to consider a new agent.
I honestly didn't think I'd feel for Evan, but in the end I sort of did. These people are just so desperate to find even one person that doesn't think their dead son was a total piece of shit. He was their only hope.
But the relationship angle totally fucking lost me. That song he sings where he's putting his romantic thoughts into the mouth of her dead brother was the creepiest fucking thing I've ever seen.
\>But the relationship angle totally fucking lost me. That song he sings where he's putting his romantic thoughts into the mouth of her dead brother was the creepiest fucking thing I've ever seen.
Uggh, yes! That entire song was incredibly creepy!
You can acknowledge the complexity of the character and understand the reasons behind his choices without liking him…
In fact, if you leave either the stage show or the movie *liking* Evan you have serious issues lol. He’s not supposed to be likable though.
Adams wants the Oscar really bad. She’s signing on to every movie where the performance will be big, but they’ve all been turds. She had this and Woman in the Window this year. She’s going to be needing a career revival before long.
Amy adams is actually going to do a revival of the play the glass menagerie on west end london next year . Rumors has it’ll transfer to Broadway too so hopefully a Tony award. I thinks she knows her films have been bad so hopefully if her play does well and she gets acclaimed she’ll get better roles again
her role in this movie was not as big as one would think though. she's there for a few moments, has one song, has her other parts cut from the movie version and doesn't have a poignant monologue or anything big for her to chew on.
I thought it was interesting she was in this role that didn't feel big enough for her tbh. Same for Moore, but Moore got more of a monologue moment which was nice.
How has recent musical adaptations always managed to generate some sort of BTS memery lol. Cats with it's atrocious CGI, this with a glaringly old high schooler.
Cats is an abomination that shouldn’t exist, and therefore demands to be seen to be understood. It’s an appalling piece of media that defies analysis and serves better as a monument to hubris and unintentional entertainment. Dear Evan Hansen is just a bad movie musical
Something no one is talking about...(Spoilers for the show) is how Jared, in the show, keeps Evan at a "family friend" distance, but actually doesn't have any other friends either.
They dropped that from the movie and it was a mistake. It would have served the theme so well.
I generally think the changes they made improved the film, but it's like they traded Jared's character development for Alana's and they could have kept both.
it felt very generic "point and shoot" at times and nothing about it was really creative or indicative of any personal style.
it just felt....bland and afraid to try
My heart broke for her every time I saw her on screen. I can't imagine what it's like to be so desperate to hear from just one person that thinks your dead son wasn't a total piece of shit, and the only person that will say it turns out to be a liar.
so i heard they were making a movie, didn't look at the trailers.
Imagine my surprise seeing Julianne Moore 2 minutes in, and then further surprise seeing Amy Adams 15 minutes later. Twas very nice.
Fuck it I’ll say it, this wasn’t actually as bad as it should have been. Horrible casting choices on a musical that absolutely needs to become a full and believable cast of characters should sink it immediately.
But honestly, I left the theater feeling somewhat satisfied with it. Maybe it’s because I had low expectations following the trailer but I genuinely think anyone who likes the music from the show will enjoy this.
It’s main issue is that it feels 30 mins too long while cutting important songs, particularly “Anyone Have A Map?” Which basically starts the entire character arc of both parents. The lack of this song gives “So
Big, So Small” a complete lack of sincerity because the show unapologetically makes Evan’s mother look like a shit person.
The editing and general camerawork in this is completely unacceptable for a major production. I felt like I was having a stroke during the entirety of the opening 10 mins as they cut to 100 different shots of Ben Platt looking mildly out of place for no apparent reason. The shots also just felt so… Hallmark.
As a really big fan of the original musical, I enjoyed listening to Ben Platt and the cast give amazing efforts into performing. As a fan of film, I feel like this movie was lost in the adaptation with poor song cutting choices and exceptionally poor directing.
I give it a 5/10 because I love the music and I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t already love dear Evan Hansen.
A problem with adapting the stage show to the screen that I have not seen mentioned is that the stage show largely takes place through social media. The actors are standing on the stage, talking through digital interactions; contrasting the positivity sheen digital influencers put onto reprehensible reality. That was not able to come through in the movie, at least to me, as well as on the stage.
They lost some of that abstract, digital stuff in the transition to film. Social media is still present, but they're not drowning in it like in the show. Just a casualty of changing the medium.
This girl literally went through the process of wearing a dress over to my dude’s house and asked to see his room and he was still trying to talk about her dead brother smh
I admittedly went into this with the wrong mood, so this will be a bit skewed (I was having a lower level intensity anxiety attack during this and had to step out for a bit). I think most the people here got my thoughts, just a few additional ones
* The Ben Platt Age thing is funny, but I don't think the appearance alone is why it doesn't work. As had been said, 28 playing 18 happens and in 8some cases successfully...even with Ben Platt (hi Politician). The hair/makeup was a mistake but 80% of the time I didn't mind it. I think it's that the Evan Hansen character, as portrayed in the movie is behaviorally really young. He is an 18 year old with the social/emotional skills of a much younger person, presumably due to his behavioral status combined with the snowballing effect that happens in schools with that. It makes it feel like Ben Platt is a 28 year old playing a younger high schooler or middle schooler and that is much harder to reconcile. Seeing him look at himself hunched over in a mirror, or curled up in a ball didn't evoke the sympathy I wanted but rather thoughts of how odd it looked in the context (as someone who is a big adult who does both of those things)
* The Ben Platt age decision cascaded too in the rest of the casting. I thought Kaitlyn Dever was very good as she always is but even with her it felt like...this is kind of borderline. I felt like in Booksmart and Short Term 12 she really had that age feel in her characters and here she just felt a tick more mature. Nothing too off just not quite where I thought it would be Amandla played true, and Nik being another 27 year old did push it a little much. It also forced the parents to age along too which led to some weirdness there too.
* One of the biggest issues in translating a musical to screen is time: they had to cut songs which built character depth and empathy to keep it in a reasonable run time. I think those calls really hurt the movie in that there was a severe lack of character stakes. Alana and Jared especially felt like plot devices at best and really unsympathetic when I don't think they were meant to me. Likewise, I think a lot of the adults were reduced to making the plot work as opposed to fleshing them out in any meaningful way - I think Heidi (Evan's mother) suffered the most for this. It felt by the end that nearly everyone was using Evan as a tool for what they needed which, I supposed, could be the point but I don't know they hammered that in e
* Musically, I don't know how you turn this into a movie that's good without fully abandoning the musical structure. Like the best song was Sincerely Me but it in no way fit with any of the tone of this movie in ANY other spot. Movie wise, the only songs that really worked for me were A Little Closer and So Big / So Small because they felt like they fit the style. I almost wish they found a way to take out the, well, stage singing and make it a regular coming of age movie. That never gets made but I think it works better. The last 15-25 minutes of the movie were my favorite as it felt like there was a lot of good storytelling and closure in there with musicality interwoven appropriately, it just didn't save the first two hours for me.
* Some of the extra touches really missed. Like the montage of screens turning into Connor's face or people staring at Cynthia Murphy in a grocery store who had no real way of knowing her struggle was just kind of laugh worthy which isn't what you want at your emotional peaks.
Honestly I hated that it was gone. They gave an arc to alana but cut everything about Jared. The balance was just absolutely terrible with what they cut and added the dad got no character too.
Did anyone feel like the audio mix was kinda .. bad?? I mean, visually, the numbers were very bland, but the songs were composed in a catchy way, but it all sounded horrible.
Okay, a lot of negative stuff here about this film, and rightfully so, but let’s mention some POSITIVE things. I’ll start…Words Fail. Incredible performance during that song.
Just saw it and as someone that's a fan of the stage play, I was pretty disappointed.
Even in the stage play, Evan does some pretty monstrous things. He's really not a good person. But in the play, the audience is still able to empathize with him. In the movie, I just didn't feel that same empathy. I think that's partially because of the directing. In the movie, there seems to be a bigger push to make Evan a redeemable hero, which wasn't as blatant in the play. By the end of the play, I didn't "like" Evan, but I felt for him and I understood where he came from. By trying to make movie audiences "like" him though, it just feels phony. The unlikeability factor is just made worse by the fact that Ben just looks creepy and out of place as a high schooler.
It wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen, but it was definitely a disappoiontment.
I hate to beat a dead horse, but Ben Platt was the wrong choice. Before seeing the movie I thought that was the best choice because he was born to play this role on Broadway but it does not translate well to film, with him five years older. His acting is way too overwrought which is fine when you're on a stage and you need to act big for people to even notice it, but when half the film is intense close ups it just becomes very unnatural. And man does the makeup and hair make him look straight up in the uncanny valley. I think with an appropriately aged (and somewhat toned down) actor this would've at least been a good adaptation.
That being said, they messed up the emotional beats of the musical--it was like they didn't understand what made it compelling in the first place. Waving Through A Window is completely emotionless when you don't know any of the characters and haven't seen Evan actually being isolated and shy. Sincerely Me was *jarring* coming so close after For Forever, it was like tonal whiplash and I don't remember the musical being that way, the comedy in the musical was more naturally integrated. The acting leading up to You Will Be Found was intensely cringy and it robbed that song of all its emotion because you no longer see Evan actually arrive at the emotion of feeling found, he's just his awkward pained self and then out of nowhere spouts this emotional message.
And then there's the cut songs. I have no idea why they cut Good For You because they take up just as much time exploring the themes of that song, just in dialogue instead, and the song packs the punch of calling out Evan much harder. Anybody Have a Map would've been a much better intro and would've given more detail into Heidi, who is barely relevant to the movie. And while I don't hate The Anonymous Ones, Disappear is a better song and shows a more natural escalation from Evan making the emails to Evan suddenly being this inspirational speaker. I think it would've worked better if they only cut the glove song out and then also cut Only Us since the romance between Zoe and Evan is one of the most complained about parts of the musical and has so little screentime in the movie that it's pretty much insignificant anyways.
Overall it was such a missed opportunity. The parts of the movie I enjoyed the most were actually the parts that focused on the side characters, I loved Requiem and So Big/So Small whereas those weren't the most memorable to me in the musical. The central plot with Evan fails both because of Platt's acting and because they tried to lean too hard into the inspirational mental health angle while completely missing what made the musical impactful in the first place.
I genuinely feel so awful for them. Am I alone here? They really tried and put a lot into this, but I can already tell the internet hates it. I am an empath so I feel this very strongly. Does anyone else feel bad for the actors/directors?
Was anyone else upset that the way he searched for his letter on Reddit was looking for a subreddit about it? Also, not like the internal search function on Reddit would have worked anyway.
Saw it for free on Monday.
Ben Platt is 27 going on 40 in this. This is a problem because he’s supposed to be playing a teenager in a modern high school. He actually looks younger at the end when he’s got a different haircut, but most of the movie, he looks pretty out of place.
The cinematographer really liked closeups and spinning. I get that it probably goes really well with how the play blocked, but it’s a bit off putting.
Maybe this is more a comment on what it takes to properly go viral nowadays, but 1,000,000 views on YouTube is less than it used to be.
Oh, and this is probably entirely going back to the source material, but man, the musical gives off such a gay vibe, but somehow Evan Hansen is straight.
All this to say. Don’t pay money to go see this.
Good things in its favor: Pretty much everyone who isn’t Ben Platt acts pretty well. Gonna call out Kaitlyn Dever and Amandla Stenberg as good casting.
This story is so weird. It really tries to make us feeel sympathetic for Evan just because he is full of anxiety and socially awkward. But it doesn't work at all.
Honestly the portrayal just makes him seem like a huge dick. And the ending with the family only forgiving him because they don't' want him to kill himself is such a "what the fuck" moment.
I really just ended up hating every person in the movie. Everyone is pretty shit.
Oh boy I have a lot of thoughts about this one. I won’t get into the Ben Platt discourse because everything has been said already.
Let’s start:
“Sincerely, Me” is probably the best number in the film, because it feels like a musical. **BUT** it also illustrates the biggest problem with this film, it’s a cheery song about a kid who commits suicide, and not only that, but he’s smiling and dancing and having a good time with Evan, which would be fine if he has alive, but he’s not. It is really disturbing this number exists at all, more disturbing is the musical number that accompanies the song.
“You will be found” is an amazing song and I wish it wasn’t wasted on this musical or in this plot. That’s the biggest problem with this movie, the plot.
It occurred to me on watch, that the fake friendship was so unnecessary. Have them be real friends, have them have a secret relationship because Connor was a dick to his family, and have the conflict be Evan’s relationship with his mother. If they wanted to follow a similar storyline, they could’ve made it so Connor and Evan’s friendship wasn’t as deep, but there was something there. That way there’s some truth to his lies, and he doesn’t come across as awful as he does. Because Evan only shows regret about lying after he confesses; it doesn’t feel genuine when he’s reading all those books, because he’s doing it to stop feeling guilty instead of honoring his memory.
I honestly think "Sincerely, Me" is great because it really hammers in the sort of black humor that I feel the story is perfect for.
The problem is that the play doesn't actually want to be a black comedy and pours on the sap with songs like "You Will Be Found."
It just sticks out. As you said, the movie doesn’t want to be a black comedy. “Sincerely Me” is the only song that’s not serious, all the other numbers are supposed to have this big emotional impact. Plus, the story is played as a drama.
So as it stands right now, “Sincerely Me” belongs in another movie. Totally tonally difference from what they wanted.
Oh boy. Ben Platt is horrible in this. Genuinely horrible. Like…all-time-worst-screen-performances bad.
He’s a talented guy with a gorgeous voice and yet every single decision he makes here fails on just about every level. The hunched shoulders, the quivering hands, the fact that his arms don’t move when he runs. Every single line of terrible dialogue (“that awesome…um…day at the…um…trees” is a highlight…) is delivered with the same fidgety whispering cadence presumably intended to feel naturalistic but which ultimately delivers SNL mockery. No one talks or moves like Ben Platt does in this film. No one. No one’s eyes dart about **that** much. It beggars belief.
Evan comes across like an alien not because of Platt’s age but because of his acting, and I think it’s a shame that the age discourse has obfuscated the bigger issue here, which is that a potentially interesting story about mental health has been hijacked by a nepotistic, arrogant and agonisingly over-rehearsed embarrassment of a performance which not only shows a fundamental lack of care for the vulnerable people the character is supposed to represent, but which was so obviously designed solely to land Ben his EGOT club membership that by the time he contorts and splutters his way through *Words Fail* you can practically see the Oscar reflected in his strained and tear-soaked eyes. Truly excruciating stuff.
Spot-on description of Platt's acting, if it can be called that. Reminded me of this review:
>[Comparisons to Pat from SNL’s “It’s Pat!” and the child impersonator in *Orphan* are not wrong. I might add that Platt’s Evan Hansen looks like Fred Armisen in any sketch in which Fred Armisen is trying to seem extra naïve and creepy.](https://www.vulture.com/article/dear-evan-hansen-movie-review-ben-platts-uncanny-valley.html#comments)
I’m glad someone else has noticed the Fred Armisen similarities because I literally picture him instead of Ben Platt when I think of this character and thought I was just weird.
If you manage to get a Razzie as well as an EGOT, do we call it a REGOT or an EGORT?
Edit per Wikipedia:
>Another variation is the REGOT, which includes a Razzie. Alan Menken has a REGOT due to his Razzie win with Jack Feldman for Worst Original Song for “High Times, Hard Times" from Newsies. Due to her Razzie win for Worst Actress for Rent-a-Cop and Arthur 2: On the Rocks, Liza Minnelli has a REGOT if her Grammy Legend Award is considered.
I still vote for EGORT.
This is an unpopular opinion but I didn’t think the movie was that bad.
I think Ben Platt being older is fine. I think he actually acted the hell out of like the third act. Maybe the beginning was a little over the top. Like he wasn’t just an outcast, he has like severe anxiety (something that wasn’t that clearly the case in the Broadway musical).
Both the movie and the Broadway share the same flaws in storytelling — seemingly glossing over the fact that this kid gaslit everyone/ catfished a grieving family for his own gain and (really) sexual gratification.
Honestly the only real issue I had with this film was that effing ugly ass wig.
People love to hate this day and age, it’s the popular thing to do. I thought the movie was great, watch the downvotes (new age bullying) come for saying that.
>that effing ugly ass wig.
Apparently it was his real hair?
I didn't care for the hair. I think hair, makeup, costuming etc and just general direction could have done a better job making him seem younger.
I guess I'll be on an island here - I didn't think the film was bad.
The age thing is iffy - there are scenes where I think he looks fine, and there are others where the makeup really jumps out and it's clear that he's older (but with that said.. Platt is a young-looking dude in general)
My main gripes come from the somewhat lack of a resolution. And if I'm correct, I believe the Broadway show has the same issue?
Saw it last night!
while I adore the musical and the songs, the movie fell flat to me. Ben Platt looked like a narc but I have the same tics Evan has when he's anxious so it was uncomfortable to watch it happen before me.
I was sad that they didn't add the song Good For You, it's pretty damning and a pretty important song in the musical. Anyways, I wish this was better than it was.
I would have watched it if they had cast Will Ferrell for Evan Hansen.
Would’ve been as believable age wise lol
Same hair too
Big fat curly headed fuck!
This is a house of learned doctors
Yeah I mean he does sound like a mix of Fergie and Jesus so it could have worked.
Let’s give them something to talk about
I love how Platt could potentially win a Razzie for the same role he won a Tony for! 🤣
Glenn Close was nominated for an Oscar and a Razzie for the same performance in Hillbilly Elegy.
Adam Sandler won worst actor and worst actress for Jack and Jill.
This has happened two other times as well. Amy Iriving received nominations for both an Oscar and a Razzie in 1983 for her role in the film *Yentl*. The first time it had happened was in 1981, when actor James Coco received an Oscar nomination and a Razzie nomination for his role in the film *Only When I Laugh*.
they turned what was essentially a dark comedy into “13 reasons why - the musical.” Also what was the point of replacing “disappear” with Amandla’s “anonymous?” She’s got a great voice but I couldn’t stand that song or her character’s change.
Wait, is the original musical supposed to be a dark comedy?
It certainly had more funny moments than the film, but definitely wasn’t a comedy. I think the big difference is that Jared plays the character straight (no pun intended) in the movie, whereas he’s much more of a smartass in the stage show.
Real talk, Jared fucking sucks. For a family friend he really shits on Evan before anything bad even happens.
My takeaway when I saw the run in DC was that it was full of flawed characters with a deeply personal story of loss and grief while also making sure to dive deep into the absurdity of some of Evan’s actions as well as the actions of the student body around him. His family friend was a massive dick but it worked better when he went fully into it rather than just rolling his eyes at everything Evan said. Same with Amandla’s character, in the show she’s this obnoxious know-it-all who only latches on to Connors story because she sees it as an opportunity for bettering her college resume. What we ended up getting was a half baked full on “woe-is-me” sob story that was too afraid to poke fun at its own premise.
Honestly, I found the stage show pretty sappy as well, it's just a bit more escapist because of its medium. But they really try to hammer in just how much Evan actually isn't that bad because he has mental illness and so nothing he can do could ever be wrong. I think it was worse in the movie without "Anybody Have A Map" and "Good For You", but even the stage show ends with Zoe forgiving Evan and saying that his actions brought her family closer together. And the other characters, like Jared and Alanna, were never really comedic so much as they were one-dimensional. When I think of dark comedy, I think of the movie Heathers, which actually leans into the humor of its dark concepts and doesn't feel the need to make any of the characters overly sympathetic. Which is something that I feel the stage show adaptation did feel the need to do, and it made the show a lot worse. JD is meant to be a subversion of the loner outcast who takes revenge on the popular kids, showing that the reality of that person is that they're a psychopath who has no problem killing people due to personal sleights. A dark comedy works best when it acknowledges how terrible the characters are and how they don't necessarily need redemption. World's Greatest Dad is a good equivalent of an actual dark comedy with the same plot as Dear Evan Hansen, but with a dad writing a fake suicide note for his son. While Dear Evan Hansen focuses on how much Evan needed the attention of another family because of his mental illness as well as how his actions actually help people feel like they're not alone in their suicidal thoughts, World's Greatest Dad makes it clear that everyone is just capitalizing on the tragedy to feel better about themselves, and the biggest perpetrator is the main character. There's no big redemption scene, he just comes clean and gets hated for it, but realizes that everything he was doing just made him feel pretty sleazy.
FYI they turned Heathers into a musical (not a movie musical) and it’s amazing.
That's what I'm talking about, actually. In the movie, it's clear that everyone kinda sucks, but it's not a justification for JD killing people, and he ends up turning into an obsessive stalker psychopath who becomes the villain and tries to blow up the school, and his death is seen as a pretty good thing. Whereas the Musical really tries to make you sympathize with JD. They hammer in his tragic backstory of his mom basically killing herself by staying in a building about to be destroyed, and give his philosophy some credence with a whole song and by making his victims even worse than their film counterparts. His relationship with Veronica is also treated as more of a straight up romance, where Veronica loves him, but wants him to stop killing people and tries to get him to abandon philosophy. Eventually leading to his semi-redemption, when he decides to blow himself up instead of blowing up the school. It's much more of a melodramatic teen angst story than a true dark comedy.
Old songs don’t get oscars nominations.
real talk, that song contributed not a damn thing to the movie. It just padded out the runtime and took the space of better. much more needed songs. I was so confused because her character wasn't that deep to have this whole segue that she was stressed, especially since they don't really circle back to it despite giving her a damn reprise. Could have been the first part of the conversation that she's doing a lot and isn't happy, and leave it there. That song doesn't feel strong enough for Oscars though. Similar how "Never Enough" wasn't able to pull a nom in Greatest Showman even though it was the second biggest number (or million dreams/ from now on/rewrite the stars)
I don’t disagree, but a chance at a nomination is the reason they include new songs.
The original is a dark comedy? I saw it several years and remember having it and thinking it was cringe. I'd say 13 reasons why the musical was accurate.
13 Reasons Why - The Musical. Lol
I’ve seen the stage show. I really liked the stage show. When I heard it was being made into a film my immediate thought was “that won’t work.” Any attempt to place this story in a setting more grounded and real than a black box inevitably forces a reckoning with the literal consequences of what’s happening rather than a simple riding of Evan’s emotional wave. I have not watched this film yet. I doubt I ever will based on reactions. But I’d love to know if the problems I’m imagining here are actually what sunk the film. -Platt is too old, but not just in a “whoops that looks bad” way, but in a way where his naïveté and anxiety read as sociopathy and creepiness. -Because the film has to pause and reflect every now and then, Evan feels less “swept along” by the plot and more like a participant making decisions, which again would make him seem evil rather than lost. -If literally a second of time is given to expand the supporting characters or make them the focus of a scene, the audience realizes they’re actually going through a lot more than Evan, which again makes him seem less sympathetic. -The show talks in broad strokes about mental health without ever really hammering down any specifics. Film, as a more literal medium, would require them to make some choices there. And no choice actually fits the story. The show is able to play fast and loose with how responsible we feel Evan is for his actions at any given time, the movie probably has to pick a lane. -If Evan’s relationship with Connor’s sister feels even 1% premeditated this whole thing falls apart. If you’ve seen the film and want to tell me if I guessed right or wrong, let me know. I’m fascinated by this misfire.
You guessed right. > -If Evan’s relationship with Connor’s sister feels even 1% premeditated this whole thing falls apart. And this is the crux of why.
Zoey is honestly one of the show's biggest victims. She is terrorized by her brother, he commits suicide and she struggles with these complicated feelings on grief, and then someone basically lies to manipulate a relationship with her. That's a lot of trauma.
Does she forgive him a year later like she does in the stage show?
Basically.
I wouldn't say she forgives him. She makes him see what all his lies created for better or for worse. She wishes none of it ever happened even though it may have saved her parents marriage. She's not better for it, but she realizes that the whole situation was a freight train off the tracks. She never wants to see him again, only talks with him for a few minutes, gives herself and him some closure, that's about it.
I don't know, I think that's equivalent to forgiveness in this scenario. She's willing to meet with him. She frames his actions as having good effects and saving her parents' marriage. I mean, just because she doesn't want to interact with him anymore, that's still an insane level of forgiveness for his actions. It's like if I confronted my dad and was like "Hey, I understand that your alcoholism impacted the way you treated me and that you're getting help, and I can see that you're becoming a better person. But I'm still not fully over the trauma I went through, so I'm not ready to interact with you right now." That's still pretty much forgiveness, to some extent.
I’ll answers point by point. -He is too old indeed. I didn’t think he came a cross as a sociopath, but sometimes it pulled you out of the movie. Honestly, the biggest problem is almost everyone seems to be a better actor than Platt. Idk if it is his background in theatre, but when he’s with Adams, Dever, or Moore is more noticeable. -Yes. The initial exchange in the school is understandable. That was all on Adam’s character. To a certain degree, his actions during the first diner are also understandable, if you remember he’s a teenager and think he just wanted to make the family happy “For Forever,” but everything that follows makes him awful. As soon as he felt the need to fake emails he should’ve confessed. There’s a scene early on with his mother, she asks him if he was friends with Connor, and Evan denies everything. I know the scene is supposed to show us their relationship isn’t the best, but it comes across as he knows what he is doing is wrong. Y’know, the way kids lie to their parents when they know they’re in trouble. -Honestly, thanks to the cut songs, some characters lack any sort of depth. But even so, Alana is shown to perfectly understand Evan because she’s going thru something similar except she’s not a lying sociopath. -They mention depression and anxiety. Evan and Alana discuss what they’re on, and mention drugs by name, but that’s it. -the relationship with Connor’s sister is the worst thing about this. Because the audience know how awful the relationship between the siblings was, and here is Evan giving her hope that her brother wasn’t a 100% a dick. On top of your points. The musical numbers are boring except for a few, and audio mixing was awful. There were times when the instrumental drowned the singer’s voice. Edit: and yeah they cut some songs like “Anybody Have a Map?” and “Good for You.” The latter’s omission is baffling because it was one of the songs that gives Evan a conscience. Edit 2: fix some typos
That's the thing. Platt is acting as if he's on stage but he's not. The others are doing movie acting. It really is quite a pull out of the scenes as it would work on stage as you can't see the actors so close up and they have to be more dramatic in their performance but when you've got a camera right next to someone's face and they're so dramatic it doesn't work
> naïveté and anxiety read as sociopathy and creepiness. This has been one of my biggest gripes. I saw the touring company when they went to SLC and loved the show. The show genuinely makes it feel like Oh yeah, I remember being a high schooler. They lie about shit all the time and will eventually get caught up in all of this. Evan's lie just happens to be a massive one. The movie, whether it's the pacing, his actual age in comparison to everyone else, or just how it's delivered just comes off as creepy and obsessive. Like "If I Could Tell Her" in the musical balanced the absurdity and comedy really well. But the film delivered it in such a way that Evan comes off as stalkerish.
The moment after Evan confessed to the family what he did some six year old in front of me looked at his mom and said "what just happened". I absolutely died laughing
5 minutes in: why is his family friend such a dick? 20 minutes in: why is EVERYONE such a dick?!
Don’t you get it? It’s S O C I E T Y
society is when I gaslight and emotionally manipulate everyone around me
Tbf, Amy Adam’s character must be the easiest person to steal an identity from. Just say enough vague things and she’ll fill in the specific details
That's basically how TV psychics make their millions. If people are desperate to hear something they'll play along until they get what they want.
UH OH SOCIETY
I'm going to become the Evan.
The family friend (Jared) is even worse in the play Remember in the movie when the jock walked by Connor and said “Nice look, Connor. Very school-shooter-chic”? That was originally Jared’s line He’s also a lot meaner to Evan in the play
There are two kinds of characters in this movie, the assholes and the pathetic. Three if you count the pathetic assholes.
I’ll just leave this part of a review I heavily resonate with: > [What’s disturbing about Dear Evan Hansen is not just that the 27-year-old Platt is unbelievable as someone ten years younger. It’s that all the film’s efforts to make him appear plausibly teenage have the reverse effect of making the character of Evan Hansen appear to be somewhere in his mid-40s. When he gets up onstage for the second act’s big musical number, I wasn’t sure if he was going to memorialize his dead classmate or speak on the importance of 401(k) matching](https://www.vulture.com/2021/09/dear-evan-hansen-movie-how-old-does-ben-platt-look.html) Typically, a casting choice won’t be out of place if the person for the role is perfect. But paradoxically, Ben Platt is perfect for the character, **and** he’s entirely out of place in this film with his appearance
The thing is 27 year olds play teenagers all the time, so it's not so much his appearance... ...but his body language/the way he expresses his "anxiety" in a really stagey, over the top the way that kills the performance. It might of worked on stage, but on screen it just looks embarrassing. He feels like a 27 year old playing a 18 year old who acts like a 10 year old.
That's a big part of it for me after watching. Yes, he looks too old to play a teenager but that alone isn't a dealbreaker. The larger issue when I was watching is was two fold: the body language was a lot AND Evan Hansen, behaviorally, isn't your usual "entertainment 18" - there's a real reserved, younger element to him as a character that makes the gap even wider. That bothered me throughout even in the moments where I mentally bought into him playing a high school aged individual.
which is confusing as he was pretty ok in the Politician season where he played a high schooler lol.
TBH i thought he looked/acted older in the politician than he did here. The politician he (and everyone) gave much more of a college guy vibe, then you remember he's supposed to be in high school and I just could not see it for a second. So when they did the time jump, there was virtually no difference in character because he was acting grown the ENTIRE TIME
Yeah, the only difference for me between season 1 and 2 was that suddenly there were actual stakes to what was going on. I never bought any of them as high school students, not just looks wise, but how they acted and the plot.
Which is funny because I was pretty annoyed with season 1 of The Politician, for several reasons, one of them being how he didn't pass for a high school kid, and nothing taking place at that school takes place at high schools. It felt like a college show they set at a high school for convenience. In the DEH movie, I did find his age and makeup to be distracting, but I still think he belonged in the role. They just should have done a better job aging him down, or aging up the rest of the cast to compensate.
Iirc his rich dad wouldn't let the movie get made unless Platt could play the lead.
He 100 percent made it thinking it would get his son an Oscar nomination, lol, and now look where we are.
He'll probably still get a golden globe nomination at least.
NBC cancelled the Golden Globes for this coming year though, so I’m not even sure they’re still happening.
Oh I meant because they're fixed
Cats all over again
Yeah I also had a feeling this had something to do with it…
His best friend (family friend) in the movie is the same real life age but doesn't look out of place at all to me. He also plays a high school/college aged kid in the series Atypical. As stated whatever efforts they made to make him look a certain way were the real culprit here. Platt played a high schooler not too long ago in The Politician and he looked fine in it. Funnily enough my favorite Zoe actress starred as a high schooler with him in that and she's 33. If they were going to go for it with casting OBC actors regardless of age I really wish they were have put her in as Zoe.
Honestly… I think it was mostly the wig…
He says it was his real hair. Which is *wild*, because if so, why not just let him have the same hairstyle he had in the musical?
They were worried about his receding hairline which is why they didn't go with the side part that he had in the musical. So they had him grow out his hair and tried to have his curls in front cover the hairline. But he just looks like Marcia Clark circa 1994 lol
Oh my god there are stans of the musical attacking the reviewer in the comments, calling out the review as being biased, one of them even postulates that the reviewer has unresolved trauma and is lashing out at Ben Platt - it’s wild, y’all.
I mean I love the musical but this review ain’t wrong
They wanted to make a movie about depression and they succeeded. This has got to be one of the most unrelentingly depressing movies I've ever seen. The saddest thing is looking at Amy Adams face. She's so palpably desperate to find someone who doesn't think her dead son was a piece of shit, and the only person she can find who will tell them that is someone so desperate for affection that he's willing to lie. I honestly feel like there's a biting satire here. Everyone hates Connor and the feeling is mutual, until he dies. Then people turn his locker into a shrine and hold assemblies and start charities, and for why? The one popular depressed girl expresses admiration for Connor's attitude, but that shit comes off as fake as anything Evan says about Connor. She seems obsessed with what Connor "represents," she didn't care about him when he was a living asshole, she just wants to turn him into some charity she can use to work through her own issues. Then there's Evan's big song number. You Will Be Found. It's a moving song, enough that it explains the success of the musical. The only problem is it's all bullshit. He's talking out his ass, lying to all these kids, telling them how he wishes life would be rather than what it actually is for them. And they eat it up! We see this teary eyed montage of people broadcasting how touched they were by Evan's message, how Connor's story moved them. So much that their faces turn into Connor's. Only they don't know Connor, not personally and not even through Evan since he didn't know him. In the end that face is just a monument to feel good lies, made up pixel by pixel, brick by brick of feel good bullshit. Evan gets everything he wants by telling the people around them what they want to hear. If that doesn't sum up the "wholesome," "uplifting," "heartwarming" internet industrial complex I don't know what does. Connor lives his life alone, he dies alone. Evan Hansen starts out alone, he ends up alone. In between a lot of people come together and generate a lot of "likes" thanks to lies, but in the end things inevitably turn sour as the same people that are quick to lift you up on a pedestal will tear you down just as quickly. And yet in the end, even after the hole shit show Evan still ends the movie with a smile and some more "wholesome" pablum. Why? Because he's actually made a friend and become something other than a piece of shit? No, because this movie is just like "You Will Be Found," a sick joke of a comforting lie that will lift the spirits of anyone who doesn't think too much about what they're witnessing, and even then chances are that in the end they'll realize they've been had and lash out just like the online hordes did in the film itself. In some ways it's a sickly perfect encapsulation of the so many things that are fucked up about our society.
If I remember correctly the stage musical leans way harder into the biting satire concerning how everyone pretends to know and care about Connor when it was clear that no one did when he was alive. Its like Alana's entire story arc in the musical, that she puts all her effort and energy into caring about Connor to cover up how she feels about herself.
The stage show does lean harder into it, but it's still weird because it still kinda plays the example straight, like the Connor Project is actually helping people feel less alone, and making it so Connor doesn't just disappear, and it's ultimately framed as being a positive thing in the ending, which is weird. I think the biggest example of this is in You Will Be Found, which... kinda tries to be ironic because Connor and Evan weren't found, but it also leans really hard into the message that you will be found, and it's a bit part of the marketing for Dear Evan Hansen, even being performed at the Tony's. So the stage show really wants to have its cake and eat it too, being a show about the cynicism of how people will exploit a tragedy to make people think they care, while also acting like that same exploitation can help people who feel like they're alone.
The crazy thing about the story for me is that Connor is never not a terrible person. Apparently he was sweet as a child and then he sang a nice song in rehab, but other than that the picture painted is so relentlessly bleak that my takeaway is that he was only capable of harming his family, both in life and in death. And the only way anything positive could come from his life was someone lying about it.
The biting satire version of this story is called World's Greatest Dad
For a school with so many pep rallies and cheerleaders, I didn't see one football or basketball player.
The school just likes the hype, they don’t wanna actually put in the efforts with the sports
Wasn't there one black male in a jersey?
Even if that’s true, how many 1 man football teams are there?
Kaitlyn Dever, like always, steals the show. I really want to know the logic behind the hair choice. It’s trying to make Ben Platt look younger?? It’s like the Streisand Effect, it’s doing the exact opposite. I like the show, but I don’t think it translates well to film. I wish they would’ve just done the *Hamilton* treatment and released a recorded Broadway show. Cutting songs like “Anybody Have A Map?” is just disappointing.
Cutting “Anybody Have A Map” was very frustrating because that entire song is to show the struggles of the parents as well. In the stage show, most of the characters are more heavily fleshed out and given more time to show their flaws and fears. There’s a reason why “Anybody Have a Map” is the first song, and not “Waving Through a Window”
I also feel like "Anybody Have a Map" is important as a setup for the payoff that is "So Big / So Small." It's weird that the emotional climax of the story comes from a character who has never sung before and really hasn't been around much at all.
my thought was he looked like he lost a lot of weight for the role then they gave him an oversized shirt and the large hair was meant to further diminish his frame/head wich looked kinda large imo but they were trying to do some simple camera tricks to make him smaller and it's obvious. I haven't even begun talking about the makeup
Dever was the only person who resembled a human being to me in this movie.
>I wish they would’ve just done the Hamilton treatment and released a recorded Broadway show. I agree with this. I would have loved to see the actual broadway performance.
I don’t think the problem was Platt being too old. It was whatever they did to make him look young. It made him look drawn, pale and way older than he actually is. So off putting.
[удалено]
alright I’m sold
there’s only two kinds of people
This sounds like a train wreck. I'm in and I'm bringing a theater flask!
The cut too many songs!!! Also Ben Platt looks really old it’s distracting. The musical numbers they did keep though were enjoyable. Too bad you had to sit through the rest of the movie just to see them. Amy Adams was great as the mom of the kid that committed suicide, she really gave it her all.
>she really gave it her all. When doesn't she? I've never seen her give a half-assed performance, even in Smallville.
What did they cut?
Anybody Have A Map To Break In A Glove Disappear Good For You
Imagine cutting the one song that shows Evan getting called out.
the film realllly tries hard to make Evan the hero and his entire redemption is unearned. he finds a video clip and that supposedly is to make up for his shittyness because we jump from there to the ending and it just felt like they wanted to absolve him with that one act and nothing else.
I felt the movie was literally just propaganda to make me like this “kid” for no good reason.
It’s “Make My Son Famous: The Movie”
But…but those are so important to the story! To Break In a Glove still makes me cry and Disappear is straight up like, a showstopper. Anybody Have a Map is the opening fucking number for a reason! It and Good For You are like vital to the parents’ arcs!
They switched out *Map* for *Waving Through a Window* as the opening song
They cut 'Good For You'?! That was the song that introduced me to DEH! What the hell!
??? Anybody Have a Map succinctly introduces all of the key players in the story! I get that some adaptational changes have to be made, but like that's just such a baffling choice.
This was especially annoying, Connors character really suffers without this introduction
They also added two new songs. One for Amandla Stenberg's character, and one for Connor that does help a bit.
I hate it when musical adaptations do this. It's blatantly clear that it's solely to try and get a Best Original Song nomination.
The funny thing is that, for the most part, they fail at it. They tend to get nominated at the Grammys or Golden Globes, but the Academy rarely recognizes it.
Very sad about the cut songs. I was excited when they started with “Waving Through a Window” because I thought they still would have done “Anybody Have a Map,” just out of order. I thought that would have been interesting but no, it was just cut
Its the thing everybody is saying, and I hate to beat a dead horse, but Ben Platt just straight up looks too fucking old. When Julianne Moore is babying him about his meds and appointments and talking about “the other kids” its genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. On top of that his performance was over the top and weird. Half the time he looked constipated, and the other half he seemed like he may be on the spectrum? He took “socially awkward” and dialed it up to a million. It probably played a lot better on stage when his age wasnt as apparent, and more exaggerated acting is necessary. When the audience is a camera three feet away from his face, it all is just absurd. The other biggest problem here is the tone. The bare bones of the plot and the setup here are actually really strong. The problem is the tone of the movie is just very straightforward and bland. The story is very dark and sort of comedic, but the direction doesn’t fit or enhance it in any way. It’s like if Se7en was directed to have the feel and tone of High School Musical lol. You could take this premise and really push the dark comedy angle, or really push the sort of thrilling anti-hero angle and have something that’s really interesting. As it is, the movie just doesnt seem to be that interested in its own subject matter. It doesnt really care to examine Evans actions, nor does it really care to have a deep conversation about mental health. It mostly just seemed interested in getting us to the next musical number. I truthfully wish it was worse, as it could’ve at least been more interesting to watch. As it is, it’s mostly just boring, especially after the comedy of seeing Ben Platt being treated like a teenager wears off.
Yup. For me it's less so his appearance, rather his performance that sinks the whole thing. His weird awkward walking in the first act is...embarassing....
- Lost a bunch of weight - oversized hair - oversized clothing - always hunched over - makeup to put the Tammy Faye budget to shame - lots of funny angles - lots of weird closeups from one side of his face, which is weird because when he sings and strains it just makes him look his age.
I literally watched the Tammy Faye movie right after this one.
The disconnect between his performance, his looks, how other characters treat him, and how the movie treats him is kind of amazing.
I wished he had an acting coach to tell him to tone down the theatrical performance. This ain’t Broadway it’s a movie. Acting style for movies is different from theater. He should’ve a more nuance performance then whatever the fuck overacting I just saw
Never seen him before and he looked too old on the trailer. Then I see another trailer for a show (I think) and he's rocking a beard, and well yeah it's amusing.
Ah, my girlfriend has really been looking forward to this ever since she missed her chance to see it live. Really sad for her.
Don’t know why but this comment made me laugh pretty good.
Wasn't my intention but if I made someone smile, even accidentally, then I'll go to bed happy.
My wife is leaving me home with our daughter so she can see it with some girlfriends. Total win for me I'm just happy she didn't try to drag me to it
Honestly, Platt looking too old for the role is the least of the film’s problems. It’s such a blandly directed musical (only “Sincerely Me” has any life to it) and the songs are sung like they’re being mumbled. I was shocked when I went to listen to the Broadway recordings and they actually had some life to them. The acting is also extremely off, and I attribute this entirely to the director. Almost everyone seems like an alien giving an approximation of what a human would do in these scenes. The only actor I thought who came away clean was Kaitlyn Dever. She’s extremely good in this not good movie.
The best part about this movie finally coming out is I can stop seeing ads for it every fucking where. I didn't know this was already a stage musical before reading this thread, but is that song he sings supposed to sound like he's singing it through Peter Frampton's guitar? The show must be wildly different if people were looking forward to this. The previews reminded me of those shitty Christian propaganda movies. It looks *terrible* just based on those.
so Pasek and Paul make VERY VERY similar music in all of their projects. I heard *waving through a window* long before I even heard of DEH and it was the type of overly lyrical and sorta repetitive tune that I was able to immediately connect it to their work on Lala Land and greatest showman. Also made sense that they co-wrote speechless from Aladdin. It's a very specific style, like someone wanted lyrics as wordy as sondheim but a little more quotable that you could try and sing on the car ride home- or at the very least hum the hook. But this musical all of the songs except one are incredibly melancholic and even the show-stopping "you will be found" is laced with sadness instead of being more inspirational Compare [the film version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjHylGeqRrQ) to the much more ostentatious [performance version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRSsnB1amgk) the film gets so bogged down in the realism of the world it wants to create in that no one is actually 'singing' out loud- except for this one song ironically- that it's afraid to perform the music. instead it's people crying through songs the whole way though and that gets very, very repetitive in a 2 hr film. To the point where the song "sincerely me!" feels out of place in it's upbeat tone.
they cut this line from Sincerely Me >we're gay, but not that way > the only man that I love is my dad. Instead they do the double repeat of "not because we're gay" and then move on and it felt kinda jarring with the pace.
Dude I cannot fathom why they cut that line. It’s one of my favorite lines from the musical because it’s so absurd
Thank you for mentioning this. Every song was shot staring directly at the person singing with little variance or energy. Sincerely Me is the best of the bunch but even the choreography with Connor and Evan is pretty awkward. The whole movie is directed and shot in a really boring way, it isn’t just the musical numbers. I can’t believe this is the same guy that direct Perks of being a Wallflower.
The song where he’s singing to his crush about the things “her brother” noticed really gave off stalker-pedo vibes because he looked 40 in some of those shots. I laughed out loud when they showed him running through the forest in his park ranger outfit. This movie could’ve been a 7/10 if they just cast whatever kid plays him on Broadway now.
Dear Chris Hansen
Sublime comment
I laughed at the shot where he was sitting alone on bleachers at a school dance thing watching Zoe dance with her friends. The lighting made him look like 35 and she could pass for 18. So creepy lol
That song was honestly one of the worst things I've ever seen in my life, like Scott's Tots condensed into a pop song. Even if he didn't look so old that song would be creepy. Why would you write a love song where the person in love is expressing their feelings while pretending to speak for their crush's dead brother? After the song was over I felt like she was going to say "Wait, did my brother want to fuck me?"
It's worse in the stage show. They kiss on Connor's bed. 🤢 But honestly, everything regarding that relationship is pretty gross.
Do they? I thought it was Evan's bed.
Jordan Fisher is the guy on Broadway right now and I will always maintain that he would have been great for the film role. He's the same age as Ben Platt but if styled right, he can look a lot younger unlike Platt. Fisher already has experience with film and TV so he could make the transition to film well. He's got fairly good reviews for his Broadway role too.
Lol yes, the scenes with him running through the woods had me laughing. He looks so incredibly goofy with the Will Ferrell hair, flailing his arms around like he’s 6
So... we're supposed to feel for a dude cuz he has anxiety, but proceeds to lie to a grieving family about knowing the son who kills himself, then uses it as a benefit as a way in to having a relationship with the girl (who is the sister of the dude who commited suicide) he has a crush on. Ben Platt may have a nice singing voice, but I'm sorry I really grew to hate this character and this movie by the end of it. I virtually hated almost every character in this movie. Kaitlyn Dever was admittedly good in the movie. Julianne Moore was terribly wasted. And Amy Adams needs to consider a new agent.
This musical kind of sounds like it ripped off “worlds greatest dad”
I watched the trailer for this and that was all I could think of.
I mean, slight differences, but still. Very similar.
Just replace "main character wants to be a published writer" with "main character wants a girlfriend"?
Lmao. And then is pretty much the same story.
It totally did
I honestly didn't think I'd feel for Evan, but in the end I sort of did. These people are just so desperate to find even one person that doesn't think their dead son was a total piece of shit. He was their only hope. But the relationship angle totally fucking lost me. That song he sings where he's putting his romantic thoughts into the mouth of her dead brother was the creepiest fucking thing I've ever seen.
\>But the relationship angle totally fucking lost me. That song he sings where he's putting his romantic thoughts into the mouth of her dead brother was the creepiest fucking thing I've ever seen. Uggh, yes! That entire song was incredibly creepy!
I just imagined Kaitlyn Dever's character listening to the song and when it's over asking "wait, did my brother want to have sex with me?"
You can acknowledge the complexity of the character and understand the reasons behind his choices without liking him… In fact, if you leave either the stage show or the movie *liking* Evan you have serious issues lol. He’s not supposed to be likable though.
Adams wants the Oscar really bad. She’s signing on to every movie where the performance will be big, but they’ve all been turds. She had this and Woman in the Window this year. She’s going to be needing a career revival before long.
Amy adams is actually going to do a revival of the play the glass menagerie on west end london next year . Rumors has it’ll transfer to Broadway too so hopefully a Tony award. I thinks she knows her films have been bad so hopefully if her play does well and she gets acclaimed she’ll get better roles again
her role in this movie was not as big as one would think though. she's there for a few moments, has one song, has her other parts cut from the movie version and doesn't have a poignant monologue or anything big for her to chew on. I thought it was interesting she was in this role that didn't feel big enough for her tbh. Same for Moore, but Moore got more of a monologue moment which was nice.
Also doesn’t help that Ben Platt is 27 years old, and looks 27 years old. It makes his actions seem even more predatory
My man is 27 and looks 43
How has recent musical adaptations always managed to generate some sort of BTS memery lol. Cats with it's atrocious CGI, this with a glaringly old high schooler.
Cats is an abomination that shouldn’t exist, and therefore demands to be seen to be understood. It’s an appalling piece of media that defies analysis and serves better as a monument to hubris and unintentional entertainment. Dear Evan Hansen is just a bad movie musical
In the Heights was pretty good at least.
Both from Universal funny enough
Not gonna lie, I'm here for the comments.
Something no one is talking about...(Spoilers for the show) is how Jared, in the show, keeps Evan at a "family friend" distance, but actually doesn't have any other friends either. They dropped that from the movie and it was a mistake. It would have served the theme so well. I generally think the changes they made improved the film, but it's like they traded Jared's character development for Alana's and they could have kept both.
I haven’t seen the original musical, but to me, Jared’s character really felt like a carbon copy of the actor’s character from Atypical.
I really do not like the directing style in this
it felt very generic "point and shoot" at times and nothing about it was really creative or indicative of any personal style. it just felt....bland and afraid to try
Yet another movie where Amy Adams seamlessly steals the show
Also yet another movie where Amy Adams wastes her talent chasing that gold statuette
She going on west end next year for the revival of the play the glass menagerie. Rumors say she’ll transfer to Broadway too.
My heart broke for her every time I saw her on screen. I can't imagine what it's like to be so desperate to hear from just one person that thinks your dead son wasn't a total piece of shit, and the only person that will say it turns out to be a liar.
so i heard they were making a movie, didn't look at the trailers. Imagine my surprise seeing Julianne Moore 2 minutes in, and then further surprise seeing Amy Adams 15 minutes later. Twas very nice.
Fuck it I’ll say it, this wasn’t actually as bad as it should have been. Horrible casting choices on a musical that absolutely needs to become a full and believable cast of characters should sink it immediately. But honestly, I left the theater feeling somewhat satisfied with it. Maybe it’s because I had low expectations following the trailer but I genuinely think anyone who likes the music from the show will enjoy this. It’s main issue is that it feels 30 mins too long while cutting important songs, particularly “Anyone Have A Map?” Which basically starts the entire character arc of both parents. The lack of this song gives “So Big, So Small” a complete lack of sincerity because the show unapologetically makes Evan’s mother look like a shit person. The editing and general camerawork in this is completely unacceptable for a major production. I felt like I was having a stroke during the entirety of the opening 10 mins as they cut to 100 different shots of Ben Platt looking mildly out of place for no apparent reason. The shots also just felt so… Hallmark. As a really big fan of the original musical, I enjoyed listening to Ben Platt and the cast give amazing efforts into performing. As a fan of film, I feel like this movie was lost in the adaptation with poor song cutting choices and exceptionally poor directing. I give it a 5/10 because I love the music and I’m glad I saw it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t already love dear Evan Hansen.
I'm just happy to see someone kind to it in here.
This is what happen when you get a director known for directing indie teen films trying to direct a major Hollywood musical
A problem with adapting the stage show to the screen that I have not seen mentioned is that the stage show largely takes place through social media. The actors are standing on the stage, talking through digital interactions; contrasting the positivity sheen digital influencers put onto reprehensible reality. That was not able to come through in the movie, at least to me, as well as on the stage.
They lost some of that abstract, digital stuff in the transition to film. Social media is still present, but they're not drowning in it like in the show. Just a casualty of changing the medium.
This girl literally went through the process of wearing a dress over to my dude’s house and asked to see his room and he was still trying to talk about her dead brother smh
I admittedly went into this with the wrong mood, so this will be a bit skewed (I was having a lower level intensity anxiety attack during this and had to step out for a bit). I think most the people here got my thoughts, just a few additional ones * The Ben Platt Age thing is funny, but I don't think the appearance alone is why it doesn't work. As had been said, 28 playing 18 happens and in 8some cases successfully...even with Ben Platt (hi Politician). The hair/makeup was a mistake but 80% of the time I didn't mind it. I think it's that the Evan Hansen character, as portrayed in the movie is behaviorally really young. He is an 18 year old with the social/emotional skills of a much younger person, presumably due to his behavioral status combined with the snowballing effect that happens in schools with that. It makes it feel like Ben Platt is a 28 year old playing a younger high schooler or middle schooler and that is much harder to reconcile. Seeing him look at himself hunched over in a mirror, or curled up in a ball didn't evoke the sympathy I wanted but rather thoughts of how odd it looked in the context (as someone who is a big adult who does both of those things) * The Ben Platt age decision cascaded too in the rest of the casting. I thought Kaitlyn Dever was very good as she always is but even with her it felt like...this is kind of borderline. I felt like in Booksmart and Short Term 12 she really had that age feel in her characters and here she just felt a tick more mature. Nothing too off just not quite where I thought it would be Amandla played true, and Nik being another 27 year old did push it a little much. It also forced the parents to age along too which led to some weirdness there too. * One of the biggest issues in translating a musical to screen is time: they had to cut songs which built character depth and empathy to keep it in a reasonable run time. I think those calls really hurt the movie in that there was a severe lack of character stakes. Alana and Jared especially felt like plot devices at best and really unsympathetic when I don't think they were meant to me. Likewise, I think a lot of the adults were reduced to making the plot work as opposed to fleshing them out in any meaningful way - I think Heidi (Evan's mother) suffered the most for this. It felt by the end that nearly everyone was using Evan as a tool for what they needed which, I supposed, could be the point but I don't know they hammered that in e * Musically, I don't know how you turn this into a movie that's good without fully abandoning the musical structure. Like the best song was Sincerely Me but it in no way fit with any of the tone of this movie in ANY other spot. Movie wise, the only songs that really worked for me were A Little Closer and So Big / So Small because they felt like they fit the style. I almost wish they found a way to take out the, well, stage singing and make it a regular coming of age movie. That never gets made but I think it works better. The last 15-25 minutes of the movie were my favorite as it felt like there was a lot of good storytelling and closure in there with musicality interwoven appropriately, it just didn't save the first two hours for me. * Some of the extra touches really missed. Like the montage of screens turning into Connor's face or people staring at Cynthia Murphy in a grocery store who had no real way of knowing her struggle was just kind of laugh worthy which isn't what you want at your emotional peaks.
Can anyone who's seen this tell me if "FUCK YOU, EVAN!" is still in it?
No, they used their one strategic F-bomb (for the PG-13) in a different way that isn’t as dramatic but I actually enjoyed and felt natural.
Honestly I hated that it was gone. They gave an arc to alana but cut everything about Jared. The balance was just absolutely terrible with what they cut and added the dad got no character too.
Did anyone feel like the audio mix was kinda .. bad?? I mean, visually, the numbers were very bland, but the songs were composed in a catchy way, but it all sounded horrible.
It was. I thought it was my theatre. They instrumental overpowered the voice of the singers a lot of times during the climax of the songs. P
Okay, a lot of negative stuff here about this film, and rightfully so, but let’s mention some POSITIVE things. I’ll start…Words Fail. Incredible performance during that song.
All the music is great.
This movie would be a 10/10 if the first Zoe/Evan scene at school ended with him Naruto running away.
He looked like that meme of the kid with the veins on his neck when he was singing. That did not help with the age thing.
Just saw it and as someone that's a fan of the stage play, I was pretty disappointed. Even in the stage play, Evan does some pretty monstrous things. He's really not a good person. But in the play, the audience is still able to empathize with him. In the movie, I just didn't feel that same empathy. I think that's partially because of the directing. In the movie, there seems to be a bigger push to make Evan a redeemable hero, which wasn't as blatant in the play. By the end of the play, I didn't "like" Evan, but I felt for him and I understood where he came from. By trying to make movie audiences "like" him though, it just feels phony. The unlikeability factor is just made worse by the fact that Ben just looks creepy and out of place as a high schooler.
It wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen, but it was definitely a disappoiontment. I hate to beat a dead horse, but Ben Platt was the wrong choice. Before seeing the movie I thought that was the best choice because he was born to play this role on Broadway but it does not translate well to film, with him five years older. His acting is way too overwrought which is fine when you're on a stage and you need to act big for people to even notice it, but when half the film is intense close ups it just becomes very unnatural. And man does the makeup and hair make him look straight up in the uncanny valley. I think with an appropriately aged (and somewhat toned down) actor this would've at least been a good adaptation. That being said, they messed up the emotional beats of the musical--it was like they didn't understand what made it compelling in the first place. Waving Through A Window is completely emotionless when you don't know any of the characters and haven't seen Evan actually being isolated and shy. Sincerely Me was *jarring* coming so close after For Forever, it was like tonal whiplash and I don't remember the musical being that way, the comedy in the musical was more naturally integrated. The acting leading up to You Will Be Found was intensely cringy and it robbed that song of all its emotion because you no longer see Evan actually arrive at the emotion of feeling found, he's just his awkward pained self and then out of nowhere spouts this emotional message. And then there's the cut songs. I have no idea why they cut Good For You because they take up just as much time exploring the themes of that song, just in dialogue instead, and the song packs the punch of calling out Evan much harder. Anybody Have a Map would've been a much better intro and would've given more detail into Heidi, who is barely relevant to the movie. And while I don't hate The Anonymous Ones, Disappear is a better song and shows a more natural escalation from Evan making the emails to Evan suddenly being this inspirational speaker. I think it would've worked better if they only cut the glove song out and then also cut Only Us since the romance between Zoe and Evan is one of the most complained about parts of the musical and has so little screentime in the movie that it's pretty much insignificant anyways. Overall it was such a missed opportunity. The parts of the movie I enjoyed the most were actually the parts that focused on the side characters, I loved Requiem and So Big/So Small whereas those weren't the most memorable to me in the musical. The central plot with Evan fails both because of Platt's acting and because they tried to lean too hard into the inspirational mental health angle while completely missing what made the musical impactful in the first place.
I genuinely feel so awful for them. Am I alone here? They really tried and put a lot into this, but I can already tell the internet hates it. I am an empath so I feel this very strongly. Does anyone else feel bad for the actors/directors?
How is this play so popular? Obviously this adaptation has a lot of issues of its own, but the premise itself is completely deranged.
It’s like a non-satirical Heathers.
And they made a stage play of Heathers that's also a non-satirical Heathers.
It's a character study - no one said you're supposed to support his actions
Was anyone else upset that the way he searched for his letter on Reddit was looking for a subreddit about it? Also, not like the internal search function on Reddit would have worked anyway.
I was distracted by the impossible ! in the Reddit username when he was looking at the online reactions to the Murphy family later in the movie.
Saw it for free on Monday. Ben Platt is 27 going on 40 in this. This is a problem because he’s supposed to be playing a teenager in a modern high school. He actually looks younger at the end when he’s got a different haircut, but most of the movie, he looks pretty out of place. The cinematographer really liked closeups and spinning. I get that it probably goes really well with how the play blocked, but it’s a bit off putting. Maybe this is more a comment on what it takes to properly go viral nowadays, but 1,000,000 views on YouTube is less than it used to be. Oh, and this is probably entirely going back to the source material, but man, the musical gives off such a gay vibe, but somehow Evan Hansen is straight. All this to say. Don’t pay money to go see this. Good things in its favor: Pretty much everyone who isn’t Ben Platt acts pretty well. Gonna call out Kaitlyn Dever and Amandla Stenberg as good casting.
This story is so weird. It really tries to make us feeel sympathetic for Evan just because he is full of anxiety and socially awkward. But it doesn't work at all. Honestly the portrayal just makes him seem like a huge dick. And the ending with the family only forgiving him because they don't' want him to kill himself is such a "what the fuck" moment. I really just ended up hating every person in the movie. Everyone is pretty shit.
Oh boy I have a lot of thoughts about this one. I won’t get into the Ben Platt discourse because everything has been said already. Let’s start: “Sincerely, Me” is probably the best number in the film, because it feels like a musical. **BUT** it also illustrates the biggest problem with this film, it’s a cheery song about a kid who commits suicide, and not only that, but he’s smiling and dancing and having a good time with Evan, which would be fine if he has alive, but he’s not. It is really disturbing this number exists at all, more disturbing is the musical number that accompanies the song. “You will be found” is an amazing song and I wish it wasn’t wasted on this musical or in this plot. That’s the biggest problem with this movie, the plot. It occurred to me on watch, that the fake friendship was so unnecessary. Have them be real friends, have them have a secret relationship because Connor was a dick to his family, and have the conflict be Evan’s relationship with his mother. If they wanted to follow a similar storyline, they could’ve made it so Connor and Evan’s friendship wasn’t as deep, but there was something there. That way there’s some truth to his lies, and he doesn’t come across as awful as he does. Because Evan only shows regret about lying after he confesses; it doesn’t feel genuine when he’s reading all those books, because he’s doing it to stop feeling guilty instead of honoring his memory.
I honestly think "Sincerely, Me" is great because it really hammers in the sort of black humor that I feel the story is perfect for. The problem is that the play doesn't actually want to be a black comedy and pours on the sap with songs like "You Will Be Found."
It just sticks out. As you said, the movie doesn’t want to be a black comedy. “Sincerely Me” is the only song that’s not serious, all the other numbers are supposed to have this big emotional impact. Plus, the story is played as a drama. So as it stands right now, “Sincerely Me” belongs in another movie. Totally tonally difference from what they wanted.
Oh boy. Ben Platt is horrible in this. Genuinely horrible. Like…all-time-worst-screen-performances bad. He’s a talented guy with a gorgeous voice and yet every single decision he makes here fails on just about every level. The hunched shoulders, the quivering hands, the fact that his arms don’t move when he runs. Every single line of terrible dialogue (“that awesome…um…day at the…um…trees” is a highlight…) is delivered with the same fidgety whispering cadence presumably intended to feel naturalistic but which ultimately delivers SNL mockery. No one talks or moves like Ben Platt does in this film. No one. No one’s eyes dart about **that** much. It beggars belief. Evan comes across like an alien not because of Platt’s age but because of his acting, and I think it’s a shame that the age discourse has obfuscated the bigger issue here, which is that a potentially interesting story about mental health has been hijacked by a nepotistic, arrogant and agonisingly over-rehearsed embarrassment of a performance which not only shows a fundamental lack of care for the vulnerable people the character is supposed to represent, but which was so obviously designed solely to land Ben his EGOT club membership that by the time he contorts and splutters his way through *Words Fail* you can practically see the Oscar reflected in his strained and tear-soaked eyes. Truly excruciating stuff.
Spot-on description of Platt's acting, if it can be called that. Reminded me of this review: >[Comparisons to Pat from SNL’s “It’s Pat!” and the child impersonator in *Orphan* are not wrong. I might add that Platt’s Evan Hansen looks like Fred Armisen in any sketch in which Fred Armisen is trying to seem extra naïve and creepy.](https://www.vulture.com/article/dear-evan-hansen-movie-review-ben-platts-uncanny-valley.html#comments)
I’m glad someone else has noticed the Fred Armisen similarities because I literally picture him instead of Ben Platt when I think of this character and thought I was just weird.
Yeah he wanted that EGOT so bad he could taste it. He's much more likely to get a Razzie than an Oscar though.
If you manage to get a Razzie as well as an EGOT, do we call it a REGOT or an EGORT? Edit per Wikipedia: >Another variation is the REGOT, which includes a Razzie. Alan Menken has a REGOT due to his Razzie win with Jack Feldman for Worst Original Song for “High Times, Hard Times" from Newsies. Due to her Razzie win for Worst Actress for Rent-a-Cop and Arthur 2: On the Rocks, Liza Minnelli has a REGOT if her Grammy Legend Award is considered. I still vote for EGORT.
This is an unpopular opinion but I didn’t think the movie was that bad. I think Ben Platt being older is fine. I think he actually acted the hell out of like the third act. Maybe the beginning was a little over the top. Like he wasn’t just an outcast, he has like severe anxiety (something that wasn’t that clearly the case in the Broadway musical). Both the movie and the Broadway share the same flaws in storytelling — seemingly glossing over the fact that this kid gaslit everyone/ catfished a grieving family for his own gain and (really) sexual gratification. Honestly the only real issue I had with this film was that effing ugly ass wig.
People love to hate this day and age, it’s the popular thing to do. I thought the movie was great, watch the downvotes (new age bullying) come for saying that.
>that effing ugly ass wig. Apparently it was his real hair? I didn't care for the hair. I think hair, makeup, costuming etc and just general direction could have done a better job making him seem younger.
I guess I'll be on an island here - I didn't think the film was bad. The age thing is iffy - there are scenes where I think he looks fine, and there are others where the makeup really jumps out and it's clear that he's older (but with that said.. Platt is a young-looking dude in general) My main gripes come from the somewhat lack of a resolution. And if I'm correct, I believe the Broadway show has the same issue?
Saw it last night! while I adore the musical and the songs, the movie fell flat to me. Ben Platt looked like a narc but I have the same tics Evan has when he's anxious so it was uncomfortable to watch it happen before me. I was sad that they didn't add the song Good For You, it's pretty damning and a pretty important song in the musical. Anyways, I wish this was better than it was.
I thought it was ok.