I Ranked All The Songs In The "Dear Evan Hansen" Movie From (Words) Fail, To Sincerely Fantastic

Where does your favourite rank?

🚨 This post contains some spoilers for the Dear Evan Hansen movie. 🚨

I'm not exaggerating when I tell you I've been desperately waiting for the Dear Evan Hansen movie!

NBC / Via youtube.com

The 2015 Tony Award-winning musical has been a huge hit the world over, so it made sense in 2018 when Universal Pictures bought the rights to make a movie version, with many of the team behind the stage show also coming on board.

Well, over the weekend, Universal dropped their adaptation directed by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and starring Ben Platt in the titular role.

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Critical reception has been harsh, with outlets like The New York Times and Screen Rant labelling the movie "manipulative" and "exploitative", and "lack[ing in] awareness". Yikes.

Personally, as a huge fan of the show, I think the movie is okay. Everyone gives a good performance – especially the Murphy family – the plot is faithful to the show, and the cinematography is good, if a little grey. The story has always been controversial, but the movie is a competent translation.

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One of the best things about Dear Evan Hansen is its songs, which have become famous outside of the musical. Most of them make it into the film – "Anybody Have A Map?", "Disappear", "To Break In A Glove", and "Good For You" don't feature. In terms of the rest, here is my ranking of how well they come off in the movie.

11. "If I Could Tell Her"

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When you think about what's actually going on in this song, you realise what a creep Evan is! That aside, this song was okay. It had a clunky start, but I really liked Zoe's interjection of "I do that ironically". The exposition actually works and is helpful, and Kaitlyn's voice meshes nicely with Ben's.

I guess it's not radically different to what's come before in terms of the theatre versions, and generally speaking, this song is not as banging as the others anyway.

10. "Only Us"

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I always forget how much I like this song, but it's actually very sweet. Ben and Kaitlyn are great in this, but the treatment of the song on screen is a little boring. It does culminate in Evan and Zoe kissing for the first time though, which is fun!

9. "The Anonymous Ones"

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This is one of two songs in the film that aren't in the musical. The track was added to expand the role of Alana, an ambitious classmate of Evan's who – in the film version – founds The Connor Project in memory of Connor.

I really like the building out of Alana's character, and I think Amandla has a very pretty voice. Although the song is not as catchy as some of the others, it works well with the plot.

8. "Waving Through a Window"

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"Waving Through a Window" is my favourite DEH song, which is probably the case for a lot of people. Fans of the Broadway Cast Recording will be familiar with Ben's version – which is excellent – so it's nice to have that continuation in the film.

The song is first up and I gotta say, it feels a bit weird at times – for instance, when Evan is sitting in the car with his mum belting the song, and she's sort of listening but not really. The mise-en-scène is better at school when there are lots of busy students ignoring Evan and he's singing in the middle of the corridor. I mean, Ben is such a good singer, you really can't fault his execution, but I do think there was a little something missing here.

7. "You Will Be Found"

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I guess this is like the flagship song of Dear Evan Hansen, as the title has been featured prominently as a hashtag on the posters since the beginning. It begins after Evan falls over whilst giving a speech on stage, which is similar to how it happens in the show and works well as a sequence.

During this song in the show, production depicts a big social media storm, which translated well to the screen and even mentioned BuzzFeed very briefly! My only issue with this song is that the chorus sounds like so many other tracks to me, including "Get Right" by JLo. Am I alone on this?

6. "For Forever"

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This song really grew on me thanks, in part, to the gorgeous WhatsOnStage version on YouTube, which everybody should see! I think the arrangement of this song made sense – it was as if Evan was having a conversation with the Murphy family, just like in the stage show. It was also cool to see Connor featured at the end of the song, and it worked well as a vehicle for exposition about what happened to Evan over the summer.

5. "So Big / So Small"

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This is really masterful. I was worried as I watching the film that Heidi Hansen wouldn't have any songs, with both "Anybody Have A Map?" and "Good For You" seemingly not being performed. They do, however, feature as instrumental versions played by a marching band during a pep rally scene towards the start of the film.

Julianne is the real deal, and the way she sings the song reflects the title – she starts small and then goes really big. Rachel Bay Jones is seriously great in this role, but Julianne acts the hell out of this one! It's just a shame that some of the song gets lost in translation since Julianne/Heidi is singing to a 28-year-old man.

4. "A Little Closer"

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This song was written for the character of Connor and doesn't appear in the musical. It starts off non-diegetic (not occurring in the "world" of the film), but it's eventually revealed that Connor is singing the song and playing the guitar on a video recording of a group therapy session, which is a really lovely progression.

The song itself has a good vibe and Colton sings it amazingly, but it's basically your classic chill guitar track with a really nice significance to the story.

3. "Words Fail"

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I know that Ben maybe wasn't the perfect choice for Evan in the movie, but when he gets going, he certainly is a force to be reckoned with. Not only is he a great singer, he also conveys the emotion of this song so well. I mean, it's kind of weird cos it's like… why is he singing right now? But it's still great!

2. "Sincerely, Me"

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This song is a real standout in the musical as it's one of the biggest moments of comic relief. As such, it's an important song which I think the movie really captures. COLTON IS GREAT! I really liked Mike Faist on Broadway, but Colton ~understood~ the assignment here. I had to re-watch his parts several times for his iconic dance moves and facial expressions.

It's certainly faithful to the stage version and Nik Dodani as Jared is good, but he's unfortunately not as charismatic Will Roland or Jack Loxton were on Broadway and the West End, respectively. Which is shame, because "Sincerely, Me" is really Jared's time to shine!

1. "Requiem"

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This song is SUCH a tearjerker, and I've seen Laura Dreyfuss and Lucy Anderson absolutely nail the vocals on this one, so Kaitlyn had BIG shoes to fill. She's got a really lovely voice and, as we've also seen in Unbelievable and Beautiful Boy, the girl can ACT.

I loved Danny Pino's section of the song (he nails the conflicted grieving stepfather role), and also the vignettes of Zoe, Larry, and Cynthia going about their daily routines and being stared at. Zoe's car scene in which she speeds up and slams the breaks at the lights was also very raw and evocative – you can't deny that action combined with Zoe's high note was pretty stunning!

Do you agree with our ranking? Let us know in the comments!

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Dear Evan Hansen is currently in theatres in the US, and will be coming to UK cinemas on 22nd October 2021.