Phineas Barnum (better known as P. T. Barnum - played by Hugh Jackman) is a tailor's son - mistreated, penniless, and dreaming of better things for himself, including a life with Charity (Michelle Williams), the daughter of a wealthy client of P. T.'s father. Seeking to change his fortune to give Charity the life of her dreams, Barnum sets about making his fortune with a museum of curiosities, adapting it slowly into a hugely popular and increasingly controversial circus of oddity performers such as a bearded lady, a tattooed man, and a dwarf soldier. But as the circus becomes ever more renown but at the same time more ridiculed, Barnum teams up with Philip Carlyle (Zac Efron), a theatre producer, and sets his sights on a higher class of audience.
The Greatest Showman is a passion project that took seven years to take to the big screen that has produced some of the most inventively staged and filmed musical set pieces of the last 20 years. It immediately bursts into life straight from the Fox logo with a silhouetted ringmaster prancing and dancing his way through the greatest show whilst singing at the top of his lungs to a percussive beat that will make you jam out in your seat; it's clear from the off what sort of musical you are in for. With contemporary influences poured onto lavish ensemble numbers, The Greatest Showman's greatest strength, quite appropriately, is its showmanship - its marvellous spectacle. Teaming powerful voices like Hugh Jackman and Keala Settle with Oscar award winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and topping it off with choreography by Mathieu Leopold, The Greatest Showman dazzles, astounds, and brings joy through its big numbers.
The problem with this is that the narrative falls victim to a lack of detail, a lack of care. A story of showmanship is sold with showmanship, but much like P.T. Barnum's true life ventures, there's an element of fraudulence here. So much is expended on the set pieces that a huge amount of what is in between is shallow and lacking in substance. The stars of Barnum's circus, his critics, and his colleagues are all superficial creations, existing without backstory or depth beyond the most surface elements. Major plot points are skimmed over and the audience are expected to just accept the world with which they are presented but it leaves a certain hollowness to the whole thing. It's a pity that the passion that went into getting the film made (see videos from the workshops and the B-roll footage for evidence) couldn't make its way onto the screen.
It could be argued that what La La Land (the songs in which were also penned by Pasek and Paul) lacked, The Greatest Showman has. It has flair, it has style, but it lacks the substance of it's Oscar dominating peer and that's the difference. It could be put down to rookie director Michael Gracey going through some teething problems in directing his feature film though the influence of his career in visual effects is not lost here. The film is beautifully shot and edited and the narrative, or what is there, is brilliantly emphasised through some digital trickery and imagery and smooth scene to scene transitions. It never drags and it is never unenjoyable.
One of the truest movie musicals in recent cinematic history. It's no Sound of Music but it is a heap of fun expressed through a impressively dominating production design and while you'll want to watch the songs over and over, the overall product is missing the definition that could have made it the greatest show.
It could be argued that what La La Land (the songs in which were also penned by Pasek and Paul) lacked, The Greatest Showman has. It has flair, it has style, but it lacks the substance of it's Oscar dominating peer and that's the difference. It could be put down to rookie director Michael Gracey going through some teething problems in directing his feature film though the influence of his career in visual effects is not lost here. The film is beautifully shot and edited and the narrative, or what is there, is brilliantly emphasised through some digital trickery and imagery and smooth scene to scene transitions. It never drags and it is never unenjoyable.
One of the truest movie musicals in recent cinematic history. It's no Sound of Music but it is a heap of fun expressed through a impressively dominating production design and while you'll want to watch the songs over and over, the overall product is missing the definition that could have made it the greatest show.
