The breathtaking, generation-defining Broadway phenomenon becomes a soaring cinematic event as Ben Platt reprises his Broadway role as an anxious, isolated high schooler, Evan Hansen aching for understanding and belonging amid the chaos and cruelty of the social-media age. With Evan having this disorder, a letter to himself that was not meant to be seen by others, lands wrongly in the hands of a classmate, Conner Murphy (Colton Ryan) who, as a result, commits suicide due to his own mental illness. Connor's mother, Cynthia Murphy (Amy Adams) and stepfather, Larry Mora (Daniel Pino) subsequently meet with Evan in the hopes that, because Connor had no friends, they will be able know the friend that Connor had since Evan's letter was on Connor when the body was discovered. Evan's mother, Heidi Hansen (Jilianne Moore) attempts to understand Evan and his issues, however, being the only breadwinner, makes it difficult for her. This entire incident ultimately sends Evan on a journey of self-discovery and gives him the chance to finally be accepted by his peers and live the life he never dreamt he could have.
Others to round out the cast are Kaitlyn Dever as Zoe Murphy, Cynthia's daughter, Amandia Stenberg as Alana Beck, Nik Dodani as Jared Kalwani, DeMarius Copes as Oliver, Liz Kate as Gemma, Zoey Luna as Leila, Isaac Powell as Rhys and Marvin Leon as Skye.
This was creatively directed by Stephen Chbosky ("The Four Corners of Nowhere" '95, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" '12, "Wonder" '17). Even though this filmmaker has a wide range of topics in which he directs, they all embody a quirky, very independent feel to them. He certainly has the ability to take his characters, this film is no exception, and create a feel of pathos and reality to his characters, which makes this film much more compelling, especially it being a musical. His direction has a sharp-edged quality to it which makes his films, this one included, a joy and very easy to watch. It was effectively written by Steven Levenson ("If I Forget" '17) plus TV and a short, and is based on the musical stage play with book by Levenson, and is based on the musical stage play with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Certainly Levenson penning the script based on his play gave him an upper edge in how the screenplay was to unfold, however his amount of feature film experience is limited. And with this lack of experience, this script was a bit slow and choppy in places. Truly, where this film excels is with the numbers (music and lyrics), but considering the musicians involved, it should be no surprise. The format in incorporating part of the lyrics within the lines of the script was interesting and fresh, but there were some places of lack of clarity, and it was a bit long-in-the-tooth--approximately two thirds into the story, it was a little slow, however it only took a few minutes to get back on track. I will probably purchase the soundtrack to this because almost every song was extremely catchy as soon as you hear it.
If you certainly like musicals, you'll love this. As I've aforementioned, this is not the typical musical, however, in my book, that makes this even more appealing it being a musical. Ben Platt reprising his stage play role did an excellent job as the hapless, anxiety-ridden, isolated Evan, and this is where the film is centered on. This is definitely worthy of the price of admission, if for nothing else than for the musical numbers.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG-13 137mins.
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