THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
I guess inspiration really does come from the damnedest of places.
PLOT
2017’s The Greatest Showman takes place in the 19th century and chronicles the life of Phineas Taylor Barnum and his stardom as an entrepreneur. He grew up working his father Philo (Will Swenson) as a tailor and when working for the wealthy Halletts, he fell for Charity but her father Benjamin (Fredric Lehne) never approved of him even after becoming adults. The two would marry and have two daughters, Caroline & Helen (Austyn Johnson & Cameron Seely), living humbly in New York, but PT craves more. When he loses his shipping clerk job, he secures a bank loan to open up a wax museum. But due to slow ticket sales, his kids suggest showcasing something alive. This inspires him to showcase an array of freak performers that include: the singing bearded lady Lettie Lutz, a dwarf man Charles Stratton/Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey), Tattoo Man (Shannon Holtzapffel), Dog Boy (Luciano Acuna Jr), World’s Heaviest Man (Daniel Everidge), Irish Giant (Radu Spinghel), and the acrobat duo of WD Wheeler (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Annie. Despite high attendance, he'd go through negative reviews from well known critic James Gordon Bennett. Wanting to change things up for the better, he recruits playwright Philip Carlyle to generate positive publicity and along the way, he falls for Annie. When PT arranges his troupe to meet Queen Victoria, it leads to him scoring a partnership with Swedish singer Jenny Lind, in which he becomes her manager. This newfound success would lead to him distancing himself from the troupe and advise them to work without them. Feeling dejected, they do so to stand up to local harassers. When Philip goes out with Annie one night, his parents chastise him for it, which neither take lightly. He does tell Annie things can work out in the long run, but she believes their relationship will never be accepted socially. On the tour, Lind makes advances on PT, which he rejects but she still kisses him in front of the press who photograph. When he returns home, he finds the circus on fire due to an altercation between the troupe and a group of protesters. He saves Philip from further injuries and the culprits get arrested, but Lind cancels the tour and his mansion gets foreclosed. Charity then leaves PT with the kids to her dad as she finds annoyance in him for craving the spotlight. Devastated, the troupe cheer him up in sharing they identify as family despite their differences. This inspires PT to make a new show without letting ambition rule him. This helps him reconcile with his wife. And after Philip recovers at the hospital, he offers his share of the profits to rebuild the circus in exchange of being a full partner. Not only does PT accept, but he economizes by transforming his enterprise into an open air tent circus. With the revamp being a success, the film ends with Barnum having Philip take his place as ringmaster so he can spend more time with his family.
THOUGHTS
I really thought we’d be on a good track of musicals after the success of La La Land, but not every moment of history can repeat itself. It does feel like Director Michael Gracey is trying to give a moving tale of embracing the risks to take that make life exciting. Song by song, I’m honestly captivated with the message getting across, but not from the actual story we sit through. ‘The Greatest Show’ and ‘Come Alive’ express prepare for excitement, ‘A Million Dreams’ is about motivation, ‘The Other Side’ is about taking a chance and ‘From Now On’ is about doing better. These songs bring a strong connection big time, but I’m pulled away that the story is about PT Barnum. Hugh Jackman does sing his ass off as the lead and has us believe he’s a compassionate risk taker who’s all about avoiding another day of suffering, but that relatability doesn’t excuse the stuff that aren’t even mentioned. Before recruiting Charles and company, his first success came from promoting an elderly Joice Heth who he marketed to be George Washington’s nurse and charged tickets for people to see her autopsied. Yeah, you can’t make a musical out of that. And knowing this, there is no way to rush any kind of sympathy for this guy’s ups and downs as they won’t feel earned. You’re already rooting for the troupe as they’re all about being themselves, as expressed in the beautiful Oscar nominated song ‘This is Me’, sung to perfection by Keala Settle who plays Lettie, but it partially feels ruined when they choose to forgive the guy for neglecting them all. Besides them, the only other person I’m rooting for is Charity since Michelle Williams is trying to make her the most humble. And her own song ‘Tightrope’ is a clever approach on the struggle to maintain the morals that you grow up with as you get older. Hearing this, PT is way too lucky to have her. I don’t even like how Paul Sparks has to portray real life critic James Gordon Bennett as a villain when he’s just doing his job pointing what is and isn’t real in the circus. Things are even rushed with the dynamic of Philip and Annie. Zac Efron & Zendaya have impressive chemistry in making them people from opposite worlds who find solace within each other. Efron shows Philip as the open minded one who has his eyes opened for the first time when he meets the one he sees as an angel. Zendaya shows the latter as the self conscious one who’s put up with discrimination for a long time and is hesitant to bare with more of it just to follow their heart. It is an opposites attract relationship that creates the action for ‘Rewrite the Stars’, where the debate of pursuing love and ignoring the backlash is worthwhile. Even though Annie sees how big his heart is when he tried saving her from the fire, it doesn’t change the fact this was the biggest rush of a plot line. Then there’s Jenny Lind whose tension with PT was misplaced as well. Despite the accuracy that she donated her tour earnings to charity, there is no proof of her being romantically interested in him and bailed on the tour because she got worn out on the tour life. So no matter how interesting actress Rebecca Ferguson made her, this takes the cake in being the biggest lie and it really did nothing to make the lead likable. It’s clear that musicals bend reality, but that decision only makes more things more confusing than logical sense as you watch along. Like talk about continuity errors only 6 minutes in because when we see Charity’s spit-take, it’s gone by the time she walks over to her dad. Ain’t no way spit dries up that fast. Also, how did she know where to meet PT at the beach? They just met as kids and they’ve never talked about before, so this is gigantic luck whether or not see looked out a window to see where he was. I then gotta ask, would Philip really stand up to Queen Victoria if he wasn’t in love? Because if he didn’t, that’s be so fucked up of a realization. And what were the odds of him running into his parents at the theater as he is entering with Anne and they’re leaving? Like someone’s gotta explain why they’re leaving because that’s the only reason their argument happens. I don’t even believe Charity when she says she and PT make decisions together because he always kept her under the loop when it came to his business ventures. And lastly, why is Helen the only one playing a tree during Carolien’s ballet recital? It’s cute that they share the stage together, but it don’t make sense when there aren’t other kids playing trees around the stage. If Barnum requested it at the last minute, at least point that out. The point is this is lazy way to put in tension between them. If you can ignore all so many cons, I wish you good luck. To wrap up, The Greatest Showman is a semi-mediocre for making a positive message but uses the wrong celebrity to do so. So if you dig musicals, I emphasize good luck in getting through this.
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