I could see them making Dear Evan Hansen a movie — Page 2

GeorgeandDot said: "Elfuhbuh said: "If this ever becomes a movie, I hope they rewrite that ending. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I agree. Like many on here I was just waiting for the final scene in which Evan is executed via firing squad due to his crimes against humanity. Kid had it coming.

In all seriousness, I still don't understand what people expect for an ending. I do think that the line about the marriage is odd even though I completely understand what it means (people are brought together over a common enemy. The enemy being Evan of course) and maybe it shouldn't be there.



"

I feel like this is a discussion that's been had one too many times, but my personal issue with it isn't the fact that he doesn't experience repercussions: in reality, many people don't and whether you think that's fair or not is your prerogative – that's where the moral ambiguity of the piece comes into play.

For me it's the fact that after everything goes to (for lack of a better term) sh!t, the story just skips ahead to "and they all lived moderately happily ever after." I find it to be completely unsatisfying. You know what they say about "going out with a whimper, not a bang?" That's what it's always felt like to me. I get that they wanted to squeeze the "it gets better" message in there, but I think the show would have been much more powerful if they didn't do the time skip, and leave it on a note of more tentative hope rather than hitting us on the head with it.

And not to bring up the whole "Next to Normal did it first and better" debacle again, but N2N did do the same ending first and arguably handled it better. But the betterness is just my personal opinion, of course.

(And the "you saved my parents' marriage line," really should not be in there, or at least should be changed to something that doesn't make it sound like Zoë is justifying Evan's actions. I know that it isn't but something about the phrasing is undeniably uncomfortable.)

Updated On: 6/16/17 at 09:43 PM

"I feel like this is a discussion that's been had one too many times, but my personal issue with it isn't the fact that he doesn't experience repercussions: in reality, many people don't and whether you think that's fair or not is your prerogative – that's where the moral ambiguity of the piece comes into play.

For me it's the fact that after everything goes to (for lack of a better term) sh!t, the story just skips ahead to "and they all lived moderately happily ever after." I find it to be completely unsatisfying. You know what they say about "going out with a whimper, not a bang?" That's what it's always felt like to me. I get that they wanted to squeeze the "it gets better" message in there, but I think the show would have been much more powerful if they didn't do the time skip, and leave it on a note of more tentative hope rather than hitting us on the head with it.

And not to bring up the whole "Next to Normal did it first and better" debacle again, but N2N did do the same ending first and arguably handled it better. But the betterness is just my personal opinion, of course.

(And the "you saved my parents' marriage line," really should not be in there, or at least should be changed to something that doesn't make it sound like Zoë is justifying Evan's actions. I know that it isn't but something about the phrasing is undeniably uncomfortable.) "



Pretty much all of this hits the nail on the head. But, to add more, I'm not really in the camp that thinks Evan needed to be tied up and burned at the stake for what he did; he's a kid, and kids can make some awful mistakes without considering the repercussions or even intending to do anything bad. Most of my issues with the ending, actually, are that in all this, we never found out what the real Connor was like, beyond some vague ideas that he was a troubled bully who regularly threatened his sister with violence. I feel like, in a story that aims to explore mental health issues, we should know more about why Connor acted the way he did, what led him to decide on suicide, all these things. I've heard complaints from people who suffer from similar issues that they're uncomfortable with the way Connor's whole character was kind of brushed under the rug in favor of Evan's arc and personal growth, and I can see where they're coming from. The idea that the family never told anyone the truth or even tried to clear their names feels cheap and uncomfortable, especially since they went ahead and let everyone believe that what Evan wrote was what Connor wrote as his suicide note. In the end, everyone ended up believing and accepting an entirely fictional version of Connor without giving the real kid a voice, and it doesn't really feel right to me.

But that's just my two cents. I know not everyone agrees, and that's perfectly fine. But if they were to make a movie, I'd personally like it if they considered this sort of thing a bit.

Updated On: 6/16/17 at 10:06 PM

I wish they'd film it for PBS like Falsettos. I feel bad that my daughter will never get to see it Ben Platt. And while I know seeing it on the screen as a show is not the same as seeing it live it would still be better than not seeing him perform in it at all.