Another Take: ReelBob: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ ★★★

A solid adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical that looks at a crisis of conscious faced by an anxiety-ridden high school senior who sees himself as an invisible nonentity.

In an individual’s maturation, the teen years — and high school especially — is where you get battle tested.

Those years are brutal rites of passage that, if you survive unscathed or with only a few scars, can strengthen you for what comes later in life.

High school was a bit rough when I attended in the early and mid-1960s, but I can’t imagine how difficult it is today — especially with the Damocles sword of social media hanging over every teenager’s head.

For those who feel like outsiders or ignored, those years can be cruel and isolating.

The film adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical, “Dear Evan Hansen,” captures those sentiments with understanding and compassion.

Evan Hansen (Ben Platt, reprising his Broadway role) suffers from social anxiety, for which he takes medication. To help ease his mind, his therapist recommends he write letters to himself, detailing what he believes will be good about each day.

The movie opens with Platt’s Evan singing “Waving Through a Window,” as he makes several attempts to write his letter, cope with his senior year of school and deal with his loneliness and unease around his peers.

Evan is wearing a cast on his arm after an accident. Too shy to ask anyone to sign it, a fellow student, Connor Murphy — with whom Evan had an earlier misunderstanding — signs it.

Another mix-up with Connor ensues when he reads a letter Evan was supposed to write to himself and misconstrues its meaning.

A tragedy brings Evan and Connor’s family together. He gets entwined in their lives, and events begin to spiral out of Evan’s control.

Director Stephen Chbosky deftly uses his camera to focus on Evan’s solitude. When he walks through the school halls, students swirl around him going hither and yon, while he walks among them unseen and unheard.

Platt delivers his dialogue in a stumbling manner, frantically searching for the right words. His speaks in a low voice as if he wants no one to hear what he says. He walks with his shoulders hunched and his head down.

You see and feel his pain — and the frustration he inflicts on himself for his inability to communicate.

Kaitlyn Dever as Zoe Murphy, Connor’s sister, offers a touching portrayal of a teenager in pain from loss and feeling unloved.

Julianne Moore and Amy Adams as, respectively, the mothers of Evan and Connor acquit themselves. Moore’s Heidi, a single mom, uses a sunny disposition and encouragement to mask her concerns about her son. Adams’ Cynthia maintains only fond and positive thoughts about her son.

The cast also includes Amandla Stenberg, who was very impressive in “The Hate U Give,” as a classmate of Evan’s with a secret of her own.

“Dear Evan Hansen,” at 137 minutes, almost wears out its welcome. Not having seen the Broadway production, I cannot offer any comparisons between the two. What the movie does is offer a glimpse of how brutal high school can be and how social media can, almost instantly, turn peoples’ perceptions from praise to scorn.

But its dealings — on a rather basic level — with mental health issues, especially among our vulnerable young people, present some useful insights that can be valuable.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.

DEAR EVAN HANSEN
3 stars out of 4
(PG-13), suggestive references, suicide, language, thematic elements