Dear Evan Hansen movie reviews – what did the critics make of the big screen adaptation?

First reviews have dropped for the upcoming movie adaptation of hit Broadway and West End musical Dear Evan Hansen.

The Dear Evan Hansen movie is set for release on 24 September in the US and a little later on 11 October in the UK.

Ben Platt will reprise his title role of Evan Hansen having won a Tony award for originating the part on stage.

He’s joined on the cast by Julianne Moore as Evan’s mum Heidi. Kaitlyn Dever and Colton Ryan play Zoe and Connor Murphy while Amy Adams and Danny Pino star as their parents. Amandla Stenberg and Nik Dodani round off the main cast as Alana Beck and Jared Kleinman.

Following the movie’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, the first reviews for the movie have dropped.

Dear Evan Hansen movie reviews

TheaterMania
“The buzz around the motion-picture adaptation of the Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen has been practically nonexistent. The trailer was released without much fanfare. The promotion, thus far, has been minimal. It’s almost like Universal is trying to sweep Dear Evan Hansen gently under the rug, a tactic that I didn’t quite comprehend before I saw it, and which I deeply understand now having experienced it.” – Read the full review

Empire
“The 2016 Broadway juggernaut […] works through a nexus of millennial hot-button topics, flitting between anxiety disorders, abject loneliness and the corrosive need to be popular fuelled by social media. Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation tackles these ideas with sensitivity through a clutch of great tunes, by turns funny and touching, but emerges too dramatically inert to truly satisfy.” – Read the full review

Variety
“The team behind the film haven’t necessarily fixed all that was wrong with the show, but they’ve been listening, at least, and that’s a start.” – Read the full review

Deadline
“The story is convinced it’s making a bold statement about mental illness, finding community and class structures, but it feels inauthentic and shallow. Connor is being exploited from beyond the grave and doesn’t choose about being on the receiving end. This film won’t inspire empathy or sympathy but disdain and indifference.” – Read the full review

The Wrap
“Even with actors like Adams and Julianne Moore along to add gravitas, you wouldn’t call Dear Evan Hansen understated for most of its running time; it’s a musical, after all, where people who are tongue-tied when they try to speak can burst into song and become as eloquent as they are melodic. But even if you go in with reservations, even if you don’t succumb to its most extravagant moments, it sneaks up on you. Go ahead, smile or ache or shed a tear – you are not alone.” – Read the full review

IndieWire
“Dear Evan Hansen would have been a much more well-rounded mainstream movie about mental health if the writers had abandoned the original’s artifice and adapted it for a more realistic genre, like a dramedy. But then it wouldn’t have been as exciting or life-affirming without the Oscar-bait songs, right? … right.” – Read the full review

The Dear Evan Hansen movie is released in cinemas on 11 October in the UK and 24 September in the US.

Meanwhile the West End production of Dear Evan Hansen will reopen in London in October while the Broadway production will resume performances in December.