‘Dear Evan Hansen’ pulls on your heartstrings and nerves

 (out of 4)

Toward the end of the new musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” Julienne Moore sings “So Big/So Small,” a lament for the difficulty of parenthood and especially single parenthood. It’s the best song in the film and the only one I’d like to hear a second time. It’s impossible not to be moved by the song’s gentle melody, the poetically honest lyrics,

FILM REVIEW

and Moore’s compassionate performance. Unfortunately, what has preceded this moment features much less honesty and is far more uncomfortable.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is about the dangers of lying, to oneself and to others, and the teenage title character (Ben Platt, 30 years old and digitally de-aged) tells a doozy. Through a series of somewhat convenient circumstances, any of which is a missed opportunity to come clean, the chronically shy and parentally neglected Evan claims that he was the best friend of Conner Murphy, a mentally ill and friendless teen who recently committed suicide.

Connor’s parents (Amy Adams and Danny Pino) naturally want Evan to share things about Connor that Connor wouldn’t share with them himself so they can understand why Connor made such a tragic and drastic choice. Not knowing what to say, Evan chooses to just make stuff up. Much to his shock, his act is a hit; he becomes respected at school, finds a girl who likes him (Connor’s sister Zoe, played convincingly by Kaitlyn Dever), and is informally adopted by Connor’s griefstricken parents.

Narratively, there is a big problem here: Evan is not a sympathetic character. If anything he’s actually the closest thing the film has to a villain, but he’s also the protagonist. We’re supposed to care about him because of his crippling anxiety, but he’s a bit of a sociopath who’s having quite a nice time