| re: Deadline.com on weekend box office: 'Dear Evan Hansen' weeps | |
| Last Edit: Delvino 08:41 am EDT 09/26/21 | |
| Posted by: Delvino 08:36 am EDT 09/26/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Deadline.com on weekend box office: 'Dear Evan Hansen' weeps - mikem 08:09 am EDT 09/26/21 | |
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| I will sidestep artistic issues -- not much new to add -- and just agree: yes, it may be the wrong film for the moment. A nation reeling from 18 months of death, internecine warfare over pandemic protocols, and compassion fatigue may find the story's full immersion in two flavors of tragedy unappealing. The world of 2015-2016 was a somewhat different one, and Evan Hansen was a modest show that didn't oversell its small canvas, at least not in that first year. Its attributes were humbly presented, that baked-in anti-spectacle its calling card. (I've heard it discussed as a musical for those who don't like musicals, rather ironic in light of the film reviews that are put off by the music interrupting the drama; I've read many.) Yet the movie was no longer the little show in the Music Box that pulled Best Musical. It had exploded, and arrived with a fair amount of expectation and fanfare. At least until Toronto. I'll go out on another limb, one that I won't hit too hard here on a theater board: the public hasn't got much taste for a cascade of lies. The mendacity that fuels this story -- even though tethered to adolescent angst and indirectly, the human pain in managing neurodiversity in youth -- is front and center. And watching any character strategically sidestep moral responsibilities to self-promote strikes dark chords. I felt it strongly when the second act scenes arrived, and Platt's Evan further embellishes and obfuscates. (A scene in the library with Alana made me squirm.) Watching the quickly deceived become a community of willing true believers isn't comfortable in 2021. Yes, it's about the insular world of high school. But lies destroy in this story, and we're not living in a culture with much patience for the toxic results of not telling the truth. Considering that 33% on RT, with 162 reviews in, worth considering. |
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