'Dear Evan Hansen' opens Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2021

Special Correspondent Malti Sahai

The Toronto International Film Festival opened with the screening of "Dear Evan Hansen" by Stephen Chobosky. Julianne Moore and Ben Platt star in this adaptation of Steven Levenson's Tony Award-winning musical about adolescence, grief and transcendence.

"Dear Evan Hansen" is based on the enormously popular same-named Broadway show. Starring Ben Platt (who originated the title role in the stage production.) The film tracks Evan's struggles towards self-acceptance following the death by suicide of a classmate named Connor (Colton Ryan). After Connor's family finds a letter addressed to Evan among Connor's belongings, they mistakenly assume it was intended for Evan and Evan does not deny it, setting the stage for deception and lies. In fact, the letter was one that Evan had addressed to himself on the advise of his therapist but which Connor stole from Evan before his death. These and other complex situations set Evan on a journey through both his and Connor's pasts as Evan works through his struggles with Social Anxiety Disorder and teen angst toward some self-acceptance.

The Director Chobosky saw "Dear Evan Hansen" as a chance to explore themes of forgiveness, atonement and acceptance in a time of anger and widespread suffering. He said, "When I take on a movie I want to do some good in the world. I want to help the people who might feel isolated, who might feel lonely or exposed."

The film version includes new scenes that might satisfy those who felt the musical didn't grapple enough with the fallout of Evan's deception and lie. There are also two new songs in a kind of extended third act of the film in which we get to see a little bit more of Evan's repentance and redemption and the work that he does subsequently to make amends and help the family heal.

A lot of people particularly musical theatre fans, who are just looking for a close page to page adaptation, must prepare themselves for some structural changes. Overall to quote Platt, "All the major beats and all the favourite songs are very much intact & all the characters are even more developed."

"There is no question that "Dear Evan Hansen" was the ideal film to launch the festival this year," said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF, when he announced the selection of the film as the opening film of the festival.

"This film is ultimately about healing, forgiveness, and reaffirms how connected and essential we all are to one another. We couldn't think of a more important idea to celebrate this year as we come together once again to share the power and joy of cinema in theatres together. The Canadian government had already announced that the border will open to fully vaccinated US citizens and permanent residents beginning August 9 and open to the rest of the world by September 7. The festival is also making films available online for press and industry unable to travel.

The proverbial buzz returned to the festival. There was a joyful celebratory anticipation in the air as the festival returns to in person screenings in many of its usual Toronto venues, like the TIFF Bell Lightbox, Roy Thompson Hall, and the Princess of Wales Theatre. The festival had built up the anticipation for in person screenings by announcing some of the films that were selected for screening in competition including, Branagh's coming of age drama ' Belfast', Edgar Wright's horror tittle "Last Night In Soho " and Morissette documentary "Jagged".

The festival will also host the world premiere of Terence Davies' "Benediction." It is about English poet Siegfried Sassoon, starring Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi, as well as Justine Bateman's directorial debut "Violet," starring Olivia Munn.

Previously announced premieres include Kenneth Branagh's "Belfast," Tahir Rana's "Dionne Warwick; Don't Make Me Over," Antoine Fuqua's "The Guilty," and writer-director-actor Mélanie Laurent's "The Mad Women's Ball."

A few selections from Cannes will also screen including Joachim Trier's "The Worst Person in the World," Jacques Audiard's "Paris, 13th District," and Mia Hansen-Løve's "Bergman Island." Zhang Yimou's "One Second," about a man escaping a concentration camp to see his daughter, will serve as the closing night film in its North American premiers.

When asked what he was looking forward to in the 2021 edition of TIFF, Cameron. Bailey said, "Maybe this is the movie geek in me, but I'm very excited to be presenting Dune at the very first IMAX cinema ever built, the Cinesphere. It's a big moment for us because Denis Villeneuve is really one of us and he is presenting his latest film in a Canadian technology. IMAX was invented here. That's a big moment. It touches film history for us in a nice way."

Joans Vincent said, "The thing I'm most excited about is having filmmakers back. That was the thing we missed last year. It's not the same thing to introduce your films and not be there as the audience to watch them. Cameron Bailey reinforced that sentiment. In an interview with Variety he said. "We also know how strong the desire, that longing really is, to gather together and be in a movie theatre and gauge the reaction of a crowd to a film. Nothing replaces that. We now know that better than ever. Festivals do that better than any environment because there's the excitement of discovering a movie together for the first time.

TIFF stands out for its insightful selection of films and for keeping the festival energized with its visionary approach. TIFF has maintained its reputation of being one of the most innovative celebrations around by maintaining an in-person/virtual hybrid structure that has resulted in great success much to the delight of international cinephiles. Many contenders in the award season race appear here with the intention of making the necessary waves to build buzz in the hope of nabbing TIFF's coveted People's Choice Award (which opens doors for nominations to the Academy awards and several other coveted awards.)

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