Alright people. I saw it. And even though I've dogged on it a lot in this thread, I'm actually not here to rip it to absolute shreds even when the central premise is still gross and an eyeroll.
As a movie, what worked worked great and what didn't work was awful.
Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, Amandla Stetler rescue this movie with their wonderful performances. They all really shine as phenomenal adaptations of these stage characters.
What in my opinion sinks it is two things 1. Ben Platt 2. The direction and vision of the film. Ben Platt is so so very miscast. And the makeup job or prosthetic job they've done on him to make him look younger makes it just so much worse. I almost rather have watched him beardy and normal. It's just kinda a grotesque performance that never stops being distracting. He's just not likable in anyway shape or form and on stage for all of the irritation I have with the plot he WAS. None of his humor of Evan transfers, he really just ends up seeming really pitying and honestly kinda one note. There's no sense of tension building, It's just this dour performance of watching him dig his grave. You don't buy that Kaitlyn Dever would fall for him, he really really should've walked away and let his legacy be the stage production.
As for the direction, this is really the other thing that sunk it. Stephen Chbotsky is directing two different films at the same time and they awkwardly feel smushed together. In a songless version of this story (without Ben Platt) I think he'd have a really elegant warm touch the way he did with the wonderful Perks of Being a Wildflower. But he cannot balance the musical element. It just feels off and disjointed the entire time. People like Rob Marshall get tapped to direct these movies, and I'm not saying he's not flawed, but in terms of musical staging he knows what that happy medium of musical theatre and film chemistry looks like. I understand the thinking of deleting "Anybody Have a Map" and "Disappear" and "Good for You" kiiinda but the thing is they would round out a vision of the musical language and make it a musical film, and instead you have a very realistic movie that has weird folky songs that people break into and it just never feels organic. As well as without those songs the score felt WAAAYYY more all the same song cause there wasn't enough variation without those bigger more theatrical songs.
All this to say, if you are especially a young person who loves this show and loves Ben Platt I cannot imagine you not loving it warts and all. I think this movie is really for the 12-16 year old theatre nerds who latch onto teen centered movies that speak to them but ultimately grow out of in time. I don't see this being a runaway hit like Greatest Showman was box office wise but I think it could have a young cult following. It'll find a lot more attention if it ends up on Netflix.
I will say this positively-MUCH much much better ending than the show. It's still not great but I applaud them trying something and honestly the best thing they could do is implement some of it into a new edit of the stage show. Cause I think the grossest part of the stage show to me is how it resolves.
The following is my thoughts on every song:
Waving Through a Window- He does it decently but the decision to have so much background noise while he's singing made it too busy. You can tell the director is going for something but there's just something awkward.
For Forever- This was so awkward. Really poorly done and stagey. And Ben Platt's performance...it just feels like he's bursting into song at the dinner table. Just really not smart direction. Shame cause this is a good song.
Sincerely Me- While I appreciate the buoyancy and levity compared to the rest of the movie, oof. This is where the ickiness of the plot is really apparent. Connor is so USED in this song and the dark humor here especially doesn't jive with the rest. As a standalone it was cutely done but in the context-I'm again like "who would think of this premise?"
Requiem- This was really great. Again Kaitlyn Dever is really carrying the movie on her shoulders cause she is just so good. The best thing that'll come out of this is she is full on a star. I wish the director took the way this song was done and applied it to the rest of the film.
If I Could Tell Her- Ben Platt comes off like a sociopath. And it's stagey and uncomfortable. It's not charming it's just bad.
The Anonymous Ones- It's a decent new song, Amandla Stetler is great. Tonally to me this is where the score started sounding very the same. And I like the idea of her having a song but such a slow one really dragged the pacing as well as giving her such a focus- side note the pacing of this movie is slow and sad and lugubrious. It plods along and this song, while pretty, made me feel that.
You Will Be Found- There's been a couple movie musicals now that do "various teens singing in front of a laptop montage" stuff, and to see it again- it reminded me it's starting to feel cheesy and tropey. As well as this is the moment of the movie that needed a visionary director to interpret it. There was something very flat about the way this song was done. And all irony that people claim is supposed to be steeped in this showing Evan's lie getting out of control- gone. It felt like almost a youtube music video for the song advertising the show. Very meh.
Only Us- It's bad. It's stagey. They don't have chemistry. It feels tonally off.
Words Fail- I felt nothing. Again, someone other than late 20s Ben could've maybe sold it but it just felt so "I'm going to go for my oscar and perform this for the back row like I did on broadway." I could smell the nepotism and ego through this performance.
So Big/So Small- Oh this is the best part of the movie. Absolutely. Julianne Moore will get an oscar nom and deserve it for this sweet scene alone. I agree she gets a short shrift in terms of her character for most of it, but I thought this made up for it and it's the only moment I cried cause she killed it.
A Little Closer- This is lovely. I don't want to spoil anything about it but again this was a sequence that worked and you could tell the director knew what to do.
So that's my review. It's not utter trash but it's also not great and Ben Platt really did ruin it. It's worth watching once and then considering as one of the mid tier middling musical adaptations we've got in the 21st century.
It's not as egregious as Cats but overall it's worse than The Last Five Years adaptation.
Updated On: 9/19/21 at 01:11 PM
