Dear Evan Hanson - My Personal Connection

Recently, my wife and I watched Dear Evan Hansen on Amazon Prime in the comfort of our home while we were both off of work. We both deeply admire musicals and it one of our favorite genres to enjoy together.

Dear Evan Hansen is a 2021 movie based upon an award-winning musical of the same name that was written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. It follows the journey of a social awkward high school student with severe anxiety issues as he become embroiled in the aftermath of a suicide of a classmate whose family mistakenly believes was his friend. Although the musical received outstanding reviews and numerous award nominations and wins, the movie opened to mix reviews.

My wife and I greatly enjoyed the film and felt it was expertly written and directed. We found ourselves experiencing an entire spectrum of emotions throughout the performance and we felt connected to many of the characters. The musical numbers were creatively dispersed and arraigned between the dialogue of the characters and, in many places, controlled the pace of the film as we rose and fell with the emotions being expressed through music and song. It is definitely a movie we would recommend, especially to fans of musicals.

One unique aspect that made this film extremely interesting to us is that many of the scenes were shot on locations throughout the town I work in and I was responsible for setting up traffic control, location security, and crowd control as the police liaison for my department. I actually worked some of the assignments myself and it is always fascinating working with film and television production. There is something so very surreal about seeing places and fixtures from your community on the big screen and knowing that you were standing just outside of the shot as the creativity of this film was being captured. It is absolutely awe-inspiring. They feed you extremely well too!

Have you had a chance to see this film yet? If not, I recommend you give it a shot. If you have, what are your thoughts on it? Do you feel it lived up to the hype of the musical or did it leave something to be desired? Let me know in the comments.

All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter,
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
-Tolkien