39
Metascore
48 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 76TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondIt’s messy at times and melodramatic at others, and its treatment of mental health issues is not the most nuanced, but those feel like quibbles given the joy you can find in its best moments.
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerThe songs are clever; the actors dig in (especially Amy Adams and Julianne Moore as Connor and Evan’s moms, respectively). And Ben Platt’s voice is undeniable, a thing of wonder, a pure emotion-delivery system. You will be moved.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenA weakness for the formulaic, combined with a noticeably weighty running time, continually bumps up against the film’s many fine points.
- 60EmpireIan FreerEmpireIan FreerDear Evan Hansen gives enjoyable, tuneful voice to important modern-day concerns but lacks the dramatic and cinematic chops to really take flight.
- 50VarietyPeter DebrugeVarietyPeter DebrugeDever is the best thing about this adaptation, which feels slightly less creepy in the lied-about-knowing-your-brother-to-worm-my-way-into-your-heart department, if only because Dever’s so good at balancing Zoe’s strength and vulnerability that the situation doesn’t read as a nearly 30-year-old creep manipulating a minor.
- 50Vanity FairRichard LawsonVanity FairRichard LawsonAs was true of the stage production, the Dear Evan Hansen film wants to have it both ways, to see the awful lie at the center of Evan’s message of hope and to still have it play as hopeful.
- 40The GuardianAdrian HortonThe GuardianAdrian HortonThe movie asks the audience to not look at two elephants in the room, and unfortunately, no amount of soaring music can relieve that heavy a burden.
- 25IndieWireTina HassanniaIndieWireTina HassanniaUnfortunately, Stephen Chbosky’s poor directorial choices cancel out the rousing success Dear Evan Hansen was on stage, with a cascade of glaring distractions that continuously point out the artificiality of the genre.
- 25RogerEbert.comRobert DanielsRogerEbert.comRobert DanielsIt’s an emotionally manipulative, overlong dirge composed of cloying songs, lackluster vocal performances, and even worse writing.
- 16The PlaylistMarya E. GatesThe PlaylistMarya E. GatesFrankly, the musical, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and book by Steven Levenson, itself is where the fault lies. There were few redeemable qualities to begin with, and Chbosky’s dreary, washed-out direction adds nothing to its already bleak, vapid existence.