Film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical, Dear Evan Hansen, about Evan Hansen, a high school senior with Social Anxiety disorder and his journey of self-discovery and acceptance following the suicide of a fellow classmate.
I am a huge fan of live, musical theater. I am always a tad on the fence when they cross over to the big screen. There have certainly been some hits and misses. In my opinion I would rather them film the stage version and release it in theaters. But yeah yeah I know, copyrights and all that…
Dear Evan Hansen seemed to me to be too heavy of a subject line to connect with theater audiences. Then when they start singing the rest are going to bail as well. I was not sure which camp I would be in. I started watching it with one foot out the door, but by the time it was over I was comfortably seated in my chair.
It is a heavy and super sad film with a story line that will break your heart; whether you are a parent, student, teen. I found myself slipping in and out of parent mode and student mode as I watched the plot unfold. Most of us have been in both camps. I could have done with some additional comic relief. Even the times it tried to be lighthearted there was depressing tone that never lifted.
The musical numbers are obviously fantastically written and performed. It is a Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical after all. I heard early critics talk about how the songs took them out of the moment. I personally never felt that way. Sure there is a difference between Amy Adams or Julianne Moore singing than Ben Platt. That is not a slight against Moore or Adams. The same could say about Platt’s acting compared to these award winning ladies. They all have their own lanes. I appreciated the musical numbers and how they added an element to the scenes. Without them I think the film would have been impossible to get through.
Dear Evan Hansen is rated PG-13 and I think the audience for this is strongly going to be 15-21. As I mentioned I got a lot from this as a parent but I think if I had watched it during my teenaged years it would have impacted me so much more for the better. I give it 3.5 out of 5 salutations. It does what it does finely enough.
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