Movie review: Dear Evan Hansen shouldn’t work but is a charming coming-of-age story

It asks fascinating questions about identity and self-delusion, with Ben Platt wonderfully brittle and poignant as the hapless Evan

Dear Evan Hansen

★★★★☆

Adapted from the award-winning stage musical of the same name, Dear Evan Hansen (12A) stars Ben Platt as Evan, a high school teenager suffering from social anxiety. 

Encouraged by his therapist to write himself a letter, Evan sets out in some detail the crushing burdens of his life; when the letter is stolen by Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), who subsequently takes his own life, Connor’s devastated parents Cynthia (Amy Adams) and Larry (Daniel Pino) come to believe that the letter was Connor’s suicide note, written to his friend Evan. 

Dear Evan Hansen

Already besotted by Connor’s sister Zoe (Caitlyn Dever), Evan goes along with the charade of pretending to be Connor’s friend, but his good intentions quickly spiral out of control. 

Adapted for the screen by Steven Levenson, and directed by Stephen Chbosky, Dear Evan Hansen — a musical about grief, depression and suicide — really shouldn’t work. 

In fact, it’s a charming and engrossing coming-of-age story that asks fascinating questions about identity and self-delusion, with Ben Platt wonderfully brittle and poignant as the hapless Evan, and Caitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, and Julianne Moore providing strong support. 

(cinema release)