THE GREATEST SHOWMAN REVIEW

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

​Hugh Jackman started 2017 with his final performance of the clawed mutant, Wolverine, in Logan. He then ended the year by giving an energetic performance as P.T. Barnum in the musical, The Greatest Showman. While critics have had mixed feelings about the film, audiences have praised it. In the month since its release, I’ve seen endless tweets from people who loved the film and even some who have watched it at the cinema three times. However, is it as great as audiences and its title make it out to be or is it a disappointment?

The Greatest Showman tells the story of Phineas Taylor Barnum (High Jackman), the low-born son of a tailor. After working a series of conventional jobs and making a small amount of money, he marries his childhood sweetheart, Charity (Michelle Williams). Unfortunately, he becomes jobless after the shipping company he works for goes bankrupt, however, this leads to him finally pursuing his dream. Although Charity is happy with their life and their two daughters, Barnum wants more. Barnum takes a walk on the wild side and buys a museum. When attendance is poor (there’s not a lot of interest in wax figures and the work of taxidermists), he replaces inert attractions with a show featuring human oddities: The Bearded Lady, Lettie Lutz (Keala Settle), a dwarf, Charles Stratton who goes by the stage name of Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey), a trapeze artist, Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), and others of their ilk. Barnum’s low-brow production becomes an overnight sensation and he recruits a partner, the younger and well-connected Philip Carlyle (Zac Efron), who arranges an audience with Queen Victoria. While in England, Barnum meets singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), the “Swedish Nightingale”, and convinces her to embark on a tour of the United States.

It’s no secret that, while The Greatest Showman claims to tell the tale of P.T. Barnum, who gave his name to a circus during the 19th century, the majority of the narrative is fictional. Those who have done their research on the real Barnum will know that he only used his 'odd' performers for self-gain and didn't treat them with the respect that they deserved. At first, I was confused at why anyone would make a film celebrating the life of a man who mistreated unique individuals and animals in his production. Jackman, who portrays Barnum and also produced the film, said that Barnum’s belief was that ‘what makes you different makes you special’, however, the real life Barnum was not exactly a crusader for social justice. He was more interested in exploiting people than empowering them. While I think that The Greatest Showman is thoroughly entertaining and features some empowering and energetic songs, written by the award-winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (who wrote the songs for La La Land), I think people should know the truth about Barnum before watching.

Aside from that, The Greatest Showman is worth a watch. There are solid performances from the cast. Although Jackman doesn’t resemble Barnum in the slightest, he gives a very good performance and it’s obvious he cares about this production as he puts his all into it. However, it’s not his best performance. As we saw towards the beginning of 2017, Jackman gave his best performance as Wolverine in Logan and he was better as Jean Valjean in the 2012 musical, Les Miserables. Williams is good as Charity, however, she isn’t given much to do but she does have a stand-out scene where she sings ‘Tightrope’. Efron and Zendaya provide the romance aspect of the film and their performance of ‘Rewrite The Stars’ is one of the highlights of the film, as is ‘This is Me’ which is sung by the Bearded Lady and the rest of the performers who finally are accepting of themselves and their differences. It’s a powerful song and is currently nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Ferguson gives a good performance as Jenny Lind, however, her singing is dubbed by Loren Allred as Ferguson felt that, while she can carry a tune, Jenny Lind is considered the best singer in the world and that dubbing her voice would be in service of the film. However, in order to get into the role, Ferguson insisted on singing the song in front of the extras while filming.

One of the main reasons to see The Greatest Showman is its songs, written by Pasek and Paul. The song-writing duo won their first Oscar last year with their Original Song, ‘City of Stars’, which featured in the musical, La La Land. From early on in pre-production, the decision was made to have the musical style of The Greatest Showman to evoke more that of contemporary musical genres like pop and hip hop rather than that of a traditional, classical musical style that would accurately evoke the film's 1800s setting. As Pasek said, "The choice was to express not just the characters' feelings, but also how ahead of his time P.T. Barnum was. He wasn't bound by the world in which he lived; he wanted to create one." Like I mentioned earlier, the songs are the best aspect of the film. For me the stand-outs were ‘This Is Me’, ‘Rewrite The Stars’ and Lind’s powerful ballad, ‘Never Enough’.

The Greatest Showman marks the directorial debut of Michael Gracey, after having spent twenty years as an animator, digital compositor, and visual effects supervisor. Jackman and director Michael Gracey met on a commercial shoot. Jackman told Gracey he wanted to make a film with him, and Gracey thought he was joking. Jackman later called him and said he wanted him to direct The Greatest Showman. It’s an impressive debut and captures the energy that comes from a musical and is thoroughly entertaining.

Overall, The Greatest Showman is an enjoyable musical, with energetic and powerful songs and solid performances from its cast, however, it's far from an accurate biopic of P.T. Barnum.

7/10