Home ›› 11 Sep 2021 ›› Show Biz
Julianne Moore led the stars onto the first Toronto film festival red carpet in two years Thursday, as the movie adaptation of Broadway smash hit ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ finally reopened North America’s biggest movie gathering.
The musical film about a teen battling isolation and loneliness drew audiences back in a city just recently emerging from one of the world’s longest Covid-19 lockdowns, which forced last year’s edition to take place almost entirely online.
“It’s a very big moment. I love this festival,” Moore, who plays the student’s mother in the film, told AFP.
“I felt so lucky to be working on something that was so important and so much about the human condition at a time when people were really struggling,” she said.
The movie follows Evan, a teenager with social anxiety whose life is turned upside-down after a classmate kills himself. It tackles themes of wanting to belong and the might of social media, as he finds himself trapped in a well-meaning but ever-deepening lie concerning the tragedy.
“I saw it very early on, right after they opened -- Ben opened his mouth and started to sing and I’d never heard anything like it before in my life,” said Moore.
Platt’s casting by studio Universal Pictures raised eyebrows given the 27-year-old plays a high schooler -- although such age mismatches have long been a hallmark of Hollywood high-school films such as ‘Grease’.
