Worlds Greatest Dad/Dear Evan Hansen

[Impossible2]

Posted: 5/23/18 at 5:15pm

Has anyone else seen this film, it is VERY similar to the storyline of D.E.H only it's a geeky parent who does pretty much the same thing that Evan does when his son kills himself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Greatest_Dad

Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) is a single father and high school English teacher whose biggest fear is that he will one day end up all alone. He dreams of becoming a famous writer, but his previous novels have all been rejected by publishers. His 15-year-old son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is a pornography-obsessed underachiever who despises and is annoyed by everyone, especially his father.[4] Kyle is a student at the school where Lance teaches an unpopular poetry class. His only friend is Andrew, a fellow student who spends his evenings at the Claytons' house trying to avoid his alcoholic mother. Kyle's consistently poor academic performance and vile behavior gain the attention of the school principal (Geoff Pierson), who advises Lance that Kyle should transfer to a special-needs school. 

One night, after Kyle and Lance spend an evening with Claire, Lance discovers that Kyle has died in an autoerotic asphyxiation accident in his bedroom. To avoid embarrassing his son, he stages Kyle’s death as a suicide. He writes a suicide note on Kyle’s computer and hangs his son’s body in the closet. A classmate later obtains the suicide note from police records and publishes it in the school newspaper. The note strikes a chord with the students and faculty, and suddenly many students claim to have been friends with Kyle and are touched by how deep and intelligent he shows himself to be in his writings.

Enjoying the attention his writing is finally receiving, Lance decides to write and publish a phony journal that was supposedly written by his son before his death. Kyle becomes something of a postmortem cult phenomenon at the school, and soon Lance begins to receive the adoration that he has always desired. Andrew finds Kyle’s suicide note and journals as highly uncharacteristic based on Kyle's personality when he was alive, but Lance brushes him off when Andrew confronts him. The journal soon attracts the attention of book publishers and Lance lands a television appearance on a nationally broadcast talk show. The school principal then decides to rename the school library in Kyle’s honor.

At the library dedication, Lance starts to feel guilty for exploiting his son's death for his own benefit as well as hatred towards those who pretend to like Kyle when in reality they didn't. While giving a speech, Lance decides he can no longer continue the charade and confesses to everyone that Kyle's death was accidental, and that he wrote the suicide note and journal. Predictably, Lance is denounced by the students and faculty, including Claire; and at the same time finally realizes that it is better to be alone than to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Despite now being despised by everyone, Lance nevertheless feels reborn and dives naked into the school's swimming pool. Outside, Andrew tells Lance that he knew the truth all along, and that he enjoyed Lance's writing and encourages him to keep writing which Lance says he will. 

[Fosse76]

Posted: 5/23/18 at 6:04pm

Perhaps you should actually see the movie before making such a judgment, especially since the movie was well-reviewed.

[Impossible2]

Posted: 5/23/18 at 6:09pm

Fosse76 said: "Perhaps you should actually see the movie before making such a judgment, especially since the movie was well-reviewed."

He deleted his vile comment.

It is actually a really great film and in the end instead of focusing on how wrong he was for lying, it focus's on how revolting all the people who jumped on the bandwagon or rode his coat tails were.

It was far more interesting than D.E.H I thought, but I am surprised no one has ever mentioned the similarities, probably only because no one in America saw it.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/23/18 at 6:13pm

It was brought up here:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1093391
and here:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?page=9&thread=1097319

And in the comments here:
https://ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/dear-evan-hansen-a-tasteless-exercise-in-forgiving-white-male-mediocrity/

Sorry those aren't clickable!

[Impossible2]

Posted: 5/23/18 at 6:17pm

LizzieCurry said: "It was brought up here:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1093391
and here:
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?page=9&thread=1097319

And in the comments here:
https://ladygeekgirl.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/dear-evan-hansen-a-tasteless-exercise-in-forgiving-white-male-mediocrity/
 


Sorry those aren't clickable!"

Ah ok, all long before my time!