'Dear Evan Hansen' film review: Mental health drama, suicide musical is a confusing misfire

There's a handful of promising themes worth their own feature films - but the musical drama 'Dear Evan Hansen' (opening in theaters Sept. 24) just threw them all into one movie and hoped it would all work. It doesn't.

In short: In order to help with his social anxiety and following the suicide of a fellow classmate, high school senior Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) begins writing letters to himself detailing what will be good about each day. Also stars Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Kaitlyn Dever.

This adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical is a story with several distinct facets. First, there's the Murphy family grappling with the abrupt suicide of their troubled son Connor (Colton Ryan). Connor's mother Cynthia (Adams) assumes Connor was best friends with Evan after she finds one of Evan's letters (that he writes to himself) in Connor's pocket. In her attempt to understand Connor's last act, she reaches out to Evan. Connor's sister Zoe is the girl Evan has had a crush on, from a distance, through most of high school. For his part, Evan lives with a persistent and all-consuming anxiety that makes nearly every social interaction painful to watch.

The audience is expected to just accept a lot of weird plot contrivances. First, the part of Evan's therapy where he writes letters to himself should have been explored more. Evan's letters allow a direct insight into Evan's thoughts and feelings - yet he only writes a few letters. This is a film that takes place over the course of a year ... and he's supposedly writing one of these letters each day. Secondly, Evan just happens to write a letter that could be mistaken as a suicide note ... and he writes it in a way that anyone could assume written by Connor to Evan. Third - someone has to find this letter ... immediately after Connor commits suicide. And fourth - and perhaps the biggest ask of the audience: that Evan, who to this point is portrayed as meek and anxious, would pretend to be Connor's friend. There are Marvel movies that require less suspension of disbelief.

The buy-in of this well-meaning drama is: can the audience get behind a protagonist who lies to a grieving family? Plenty of high-concept movies fall into the "mistaken identity" bucket - but 'Evan Hansen' has the audacity to have its lead character look a grieving mother directly in the eyes and lie to her over and over. The only reason this isn't outright rejected is because 'Evan Hansen' taps into existential loneliness - but is this an acceptable justification for such an egregious lie? This film's apologists might argue that Evan had no malice and he only meant well ... but how is that enough to absolve Evan? It could be argued that 'Evan Hansen' exploits its protagonist's struggles as a means of coercing empathy for a character whose deceit is objectively horrible. If Evan Hansen was reimagined as a teen without any diagnosable health issues ... would an audience be able to accept his actions?

While it feels like harping on Evan's deception might sound repetitive, this singular lie is the plot driver that moves the entire story forward. And because the story doesn't have faith in its own stakes, 'Evan Hansen' just keeps letting the lie spin more and more out of control. This absolutely minimizes Evan's deception to the Murphy family - a more confident film would root itself in the inherent betrayal of co-opting Connor's death for his own gain. And Evan absolutely gains - he gains some serious social clout after he goes viral (while singing a song in Connor's memory) and he basically gains a new family when the Murphys become increasingly close to him. So rather than focus on the lie's fundamental destructive capability, the script just adds layers of plot noise to artificially raise the stakes - so if Evan's lie is ever revealed, he wouldn't just hurt the Murphys ... he would betray the ever widening circle of people touched by Connor's suicide.

Despite the script's very fundamental shortcomings, at least this is a well-cast film. While much as been made of 27-year-old Ben Platt playing a high school senior - but co-star Kaitlyn Dever is 24 years old. Platt certainly can't pass for a high school student but his performance lays bare Evan's isolation and insecurity. Should the titular character been recast? Maybe - but Platt proves he knows this character inside and out ... and honestly his humane performance is probably the only reason the movie isn't abjectly disgusting. Adams is heartbreaking as a mother looking for answers and Dever finds that perfect balance between resentment and sorrow.

This could have been a solid, focused film about a family struggling to learn about more about their recently passed son or the isolation of anxiety or the regret of not reaching out to people who feel desperately alone. In its laziest moment, a character sings about finding connection with people ... and the movie simply isn't artistic enough to relay how the song resonates with people all over the world ... except to show social media shares, retweets and likes going up and up. Rather than just showing people of all walks of live relating personally to the song, this film just artlessly shows super bigly numbers getting more bigly as a way of saying "look, a super lot of people like this song."

Oh, and as far as musicals go ... none of the songs are memorable. It's a forgettable songbook. It's worth asking: why is this even a musical? Yet another half-baked, unrealized facet of 'Evan Hansen.'

Final verdict: Buried under the issues of dysfunctional families, adolescent mental health, depression and social grief thieves, 'Dear Evan Hansen' flirts with the shared, imperfect and lonely experience of growing up. But in doing none of these subjects justice, the overall film underwhelms.

Score: 2/5

'Dear Evan Hansen' opens in theaters Sept. 24. This drama is rated PG-13 for thematic material involving suicide, brief strong language and some suggestive reference and has a running time of 137 minutes.