IMAGINARY FRIEND (DEAR EVAN HANSEN)

Dear Evan Hansen.

It must have seemed like a great idea turning a hit musical about you into a film.

It must have also seemed like a pretty good bet that the film was going to be a hit.

After all, the Broadway production not only wowed theatregoers but it netted six Tonys, a Grammy and an Emmy in 2017 and won Oliviers when it transferred to London's West End. 

Its songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Pahad had already proven themselves onscreen by contributing songs to the Oscar winning 'La La Land'

Stephen Chbosky would have seemed like a sound choice as director following his success with his young adult movie 'The Perks of Being A Wallflower' and his smart script for the Disney live action version of the musical 'Beauty and the Beast'.

Not only that but he cast Ben Platt in the lead - the original Evan Hansen - and Julianne Moore and Amy Adams also landed key roles.

So Evan, what the hell happened?

Why does a musical about you that worked so well onstage misfire so badly on film?

Adapted for the cinema by Steven Levenson, Ben Platt plays 17 year old Evan, a socially awkward teenager struggling with severe anxiety.

In addition to taking medication, Evan has to write a letter to himself each day in an attempt to be more positive about his life but he struggles.

Sporting a cast on his left arm which his hardworking, divorced mum Julianne Moore's Heidi hopes will be an ice breaker at the start of the high school year, Evan nervously wanders into assembly hoping to remain anonymous.

Sitting at a sound desk with the one pupil he talks to, Nik Dodani's catty, gay family friend Jared Kalwani, he longingly spies Kaitlyn Dever's Zoe Murphy who plays electric guitar.

After assembly, Zoe's troubled, hotheaded brother Colton Ryan's Connor loses the plot at the school lockers and directs his anger at Evan, with his sister coming up to him to apologise.

Tongue tied in her presence, Evan panics and keeps saying sorry, before bolting to the bathroom to regain his breath and take his pills.

Later he is using a school computer to write and print off one of his Dear Evan letters to himself ahead of therapy, when Connor approaches him apologetically and even offers to sign his cast, scrawling his name in huge letters.

However Connor explodes again on discovering Evan's letter in the printer because it contains references to Zoe and he assumes Evan is trying to humiliate him.

He storms off with the letter, with Evan fearing Connor will post it on social media and make a mockery of him.

However Connor doesn't appear in school for three days and nothing is posted.

Heading nervously into school with Jared, Evan is summoned to the principal's office where Connor's mum and stepdad Amy Adams' Cynthia Murphy and Danny Pino's Larry Mora reveal their son has committed suicide.

Stunned by the news, Evan is further rattled when Cynthia produces the letter, believing it was written by Connor and assuming the two of them had a close friendship which he had kept from them.

Desperate for Evan to confirm her assumption and to give her more details, she invites him to dinner with Larry and Zoe.

Feeling pressured to say something positive about someone he barely knew, Evan lies and makes up a story about Connor and him climbing a tree in an orchard and helping him after he fell and broke his arm.

Delighted to hear this, Cynthia in her grief presses him for more stories about his apparent friendship with Connor.

Recruiting Jared to the cause, Evan starts to concoct emails which purport to show a more sensitive side to Cynthia's son.

The more Evan appears to reveal about his imaginary friendship with Connor, the closer he is drawn into the lives of Cynthia, Larry and Zoe as he paints a much gentler image of their son, stepson and brother.

Zoe's principal memories of her brother were of a violent, drug addicted, troubled young man.

Hearing Evan and Connor were apparently close friends, Amandla Stenberg's ace student Alana Beck becomes eager to use their apparent friendship as a springboard for an initiative that will help troubled teens.

But as the lies pile up and become more elaborate, will Evan's lies eventually trip him up?

Even before its release, Chbosky's movie of 'Dear Evan Hansen' was in trouble as social media users tore into its lead actor's age - he was 26 when it was made.

Others also fumed about the fact that his dad, Marc Platt was one of the movie's producers.

That social media storm seems a bit unfair, ignoring the fact that Hollywood has always had a tendency to cast twentysomethings as high school students in film and TV.

Ben Platt's detractors also conveniently overlooked the fact that not only was he the original Evan on Broadway but he won a Tony for it.

So it could be argued he is the best equipped actor to know how to handle the complexities of playing Evan.

However Platt fails to successfully make the adjustment from a musical theatre performance to the demands of the film musical.

The twitches and mannerisms of Evan that might have played well onstage to audience members at the back of a theatre seem forced and tricksy under the cold, hard gaze of a camera.

And while no-one wants to be ageist, the lighting and make-up do not help Platt.

They simply cannot hide the fact that Platt looks like a person in his mid-20s.

He is about as convincing a high school student as Nicolas Cage and Kathleen Turner in 'Peggy Sue Got Married' or John Travolta, Olivia Newton John and Stockard Channing were in 'Grease'.

And let's face it, they all looked ridiculous.

However the failure of 'Dear Evan Hansen' to transfer well onto the big screen is not solely Platt's fault.

The film's central premise of a well meaning, socially awkward guy stumbling into a lie that gets blown massively out of proportion doesn't quite engage our sympathies in the way it should.

As Evan grows closer to Connor's family and especially Zoe, it suddenly starts to appear a bit more creepy than you suspect Levenson or Chbosky intended.

And when they try to recover audience sympathy for their lead character, the impact is blunt.

Perhaps the oddest thing about the movie 'Dear Evan Hansen' is that it comes across as musical that doesn't really appear to want to be a musical.

It is so half hearted, its characters burst into song but, with the exception of one sequence that brings to life the imaginary emails from Connor, there is no other choreography.

So instead of characters going into elaborate dance sequences, its characters walk around living rooms, school corridors, assembly halls or sit on swings as they sing.

And that makes the decision to have one dance sequence in the film all the more bizarre. 

That means the focus is almost entirely on the songs and unfortunately for Chbosky, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's work withers under all the scrutiny.

There is nothing really memorable on the soundtrack - each song sounds like variations on a tune.

The stiffness and political correctness of much of Levenson's script also jars with the central premise of a vulnerable young man unintentionally profiting off the grief of a family.

Chbosky's flat direction and the lack of vibrancy onscreen result in 'Dear Evan Hansen' straying into territory where it seems like the director is parodying the modern musical.

All of this is a pity because you feel the cast are genuinely trying to breathe life into Levenson's characters.

But even seasoned hands like Adams, Moore and Pino cannot rescue 'Dear Evan Hansen' from the fact that it just feels so inert.

And if they're struggling, just imagine how Platt, Dever, Stenberg, Dodani and Ryan cope.

Chbosky's film might have had more of a fighting chance had he gone for a fresh, younger lead.

But what it really needed was a bit more imagination and a lot more choreography.

That would have given 'Dear Evan Hansen' some vivacity.

Instead what Chbosky delivers is a well intentioned but badly handled, limp drama with songs in it.

And that does its central character, its lead and the rest of the cast no favours at all.

Never has the lyric: 'Cos I've learned to slam on the brake before I even turn the key' seemed more appropriate.

('Dear Evan Hansen' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on October 22, 2021)

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