I went in nervous, but this lasted so long in the theater I eventually just went to see why. The reviews were definitely mixed, and the setup sounded hard to sit through.
Here’s the deal. Evan is a high schooler with crippling anxiety who writes a letter to himself for a therapy assignment. When a classmate dies by suicide with that letter in his pocket, everyone assumes the two were close friends. Instead of correcting them, Evan lets the lie grow until it swallows his whole life.
Ben Platt is the reason this works. He plays anxiety like something happening in his body, not a big dramatic breakdown but a constant low hum of dread. The stutter, the fidgeting, the way he can’t hold eye contact. It’s painfully honest and I could relate to it 100%.
Best of all, the film never lets Evan off the hook. He lies. He manipulates grieving people. He hurts them. The movie knows exactly what he’s doing and refuses to make it okay. That takes guts.
The songs surprised me too. They don’t play like big stage numbers. They feel like we’re climbing inside Evan’s head. It starts hopeful and slowly curdles into something much sadder.
Is it perfect? No. It drags in the middle, and every so often you can feel the stage under it. But the emotion is real, and it stayed with me.
If you can handle a heavy, uncomfortable story that treats a liar honestly, sit with this one. Go in ready to feel something.
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