20 Movie Characters Who Never Got The Comeuppance They Deserved
6. Dear Evan Hansen - Evan Hansen
Evan Hansen was quite possibly a psychopath. OK, fine, he's dealing with his own mental health issues... just like pretty much every single teenager in the world is, at any given time. That's not an excuse for what he does.
After a fellow student commits suicide, his family mistakenly believes that he and Evan (Ben Platt) were friends, and Evan proceeds to fake an entire friendship with the dead boy just to get close to his sister Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), who Evan fancies. Eventually, his deception is exposed, and what happens to Evan? Nothing much. The bereaved family is understandably pissed off, but that's about it.
The original stage musical was criticized by some reviewers for not punishing Evan enough, and the disastrous 2021 film took this even further. Most damagingly, it omitted the song 'Good for You', which chastises Evan, and doesn't seem to pass any of the judgement that Evan sorely deserved.
The movie version of Evan is egregiously off-putting. Not only was Ben Platt (reprising the role he originated on stage) so much worse on-screen than he was on stage, but he was far too old for the part, and the abysmal make-up job to try and make him look younger was a total eyesore. This, combined with his despicable actions, made him an uncomfortable character to watch, and although giving him some sort of comeuppance wouldn't have saved this generally misjudged film, it might've made it easier to get through.