Review of Dear Evan Hansen (2021) by Dawdlingpoet — 06 Mar 2022

This is a film that hits close to home for me - a film about a shy and socially anxious teenager trying to get through his high school years (that was me), who finds his actions being accidentally misinterpreted, that may be the best way to put it.

Its a quite poignant film, although its also fairly cheesy or corny as its a musical but I felt it handled the themes relatively well overall. Many people criticise the main performance as the actor (Ben Platt) is clearly much older than the character is meant to be - I agree, that is clearly the case and it is a bit distracting but it didn't entirely spoil the film for me because I could overlook it and concentrate on the plot at hand (ignoring the age issue).

Yes, I'd recommend this film, if the issue with Ben Platt doesn't put you off too much. I thought it's got a good mix of singing based scenes and 'regular' dialogue based scenes and its somewhat thought provoking, although I imagine people with no experience of social anxiety may feel its a little long winded and perhaps a bit self indulgent.