The Greatest Showman

Man I must be a sucker for musicals these days. 

I enjoyed the hell out of The Greatest Showman and, at least from the reviews/opinions that I've read, I don't disagree with any of its pitfalls -- of which there are many -- but I left the theater uplifted, having had a great time, and realizing that I saw a pretty bad film...

...but one heck of a string of musical numbers. 

The Greatest Showman then could be potentially defined as my "guilty" pleasure enjoyment film of the year, although I don't feel all that guilty about it. It stands as a good example of a movie I know I should have my issues with, and I do, but I tend to not really care about them. 

Showman tells the story of P.T. Barnum and the focal point of his life when he transformed from rags to riches almost all the way back to rags. I've not done much research but I'm fairly certain he wasn't necessarily someone to model your life after, even if the film suggests he is (or at least glosses over some of his issues). And really it's here that the film is barely there...

But when you have beautiful people running around to great choreography singing really catchy and uplifting tunes for greater than 70% of your runtime I struggle to care about all the qualms I could have. 

And I'll preface some of what I've said with the fact that I often don't love musicals. Or at least not to my knowledge. La La Land is an exception because it was such a clear vision brought to the screen AND its songs were fairly separated (and fantastic), all things considered. Something more like Les Miserables though I borderline hated because it was ALL music (and boring music at that) all the time. So I've never really considered myself a fan of musicals and I'm certainly no expert, but I know what I like. And I liked The Greatest Showman a lot. 

Logan cleans up nicely!

Truthfully they should each be dead after
this scene. They take like 24 shots each

I'll come back to why, or rather where, The Greatest Showman sucks. Its story is tied together from non-musical scene to non-musical scene by the thinnest of strings and is corny, cliched, and poorly executed. One moment Barnum (Jackman) is a child, the next he's grown and married to his wife, Charity (Williams), and then all the sudden the circus is born and they're filthy rich. It's a whirlwind and truthfully this is a very average/bad film when there is no song and dance involved. It glorifies much of Barnum and tries to prove several points at once about believing in your dreams, not hiding away the attributes that make you unique, and realizing to be happy with what you have and I think it unfortunately moves the plot forward far more than it actually does via song and dance so moving from scene to scene is often an exercise in saying "Oh, so this happened I guess?". Those scenes aren't all horrible mainly because of the cast. Hugh Jackman is having a great year coming off Logan (which, after a second viewing is even better and definitely one of the very best films of the year) and he's clearly the most eager one here, bringing a lot of energy and sincerity to each scene he's in. From a casting perspective, he was a perfect choice as he often is. Everyone else seems to at least be having fun while a lot of the cast is reserved strictly for singing and dancing. Zendaya and Zac Efron are a couple I was rooting for (what's happening to me?!?) and several scenes might as well have been High School Musical 4 (not a bad thing) given their Disney pedigree.

Where The Greatest Showman signs really bright is in the music itself, and the showmanship of the music, which is fitting for obvious reasons. Talking just to the song and dance visuals for a second, the choreography is often fast, crisp, and filmed well with decent editing. Once I start listening to the original music by itself will determine how much of an impact the visuals have, but my guess would be that they're 20-40% of the effectiveness. The rest of it belongs to the songs themselves and just how damn catchy they are, all of which carry an uplifting message. Normally in musicals, or even films with several songs in them, I like only half the songs. Or maybe just one song. I kept waiting during Greatest Showman to find a song I didn't like and it never came. Each song has a wonderful build up, understandable lyrics, moments of bombastic musicality, and moments of quiet appreciation. It's been a day since I've seen the film and I couldn't stop humming several of the songs even if I tried. And I don't want to stop! 

This scene would have been ruined if she just completely
fell of the trapeze, dont you think?

So where does that leave me on rating The Greatest Showman? I recognize that it's pretty useless as a film or any sort of biography about P.T. Barnum, but the other half of me loves its escapism, its optimism, and it's eagerness to inspire. And those freakin' catchy tunes! At the end of the day it's really up to me on how I score it, but I suppose that's my biggest takeaway to share about The Greatest Showman: if you're in it for a movie or you're eagerly interested in the history of Barnum or the circus: choose a different movie. But if you want to tap your toes, nod your head, and be entertained by Jackman, Efron, Zendaya and Co. with some family friendly fare and fantastic music, The Greatest Showman is a great way to kill a couple hours. 

CONS

• The story is only held together by the thinnest of threads and zooms forward without much reasoning
• Very corny, cliche, and cheesy which isn't great in the non-singing scenes
• Puts Barnum on a bit of a pedestal which I'm not sure he deserves 
• Most of the cast is kept for just the singing and dancing

PROS

• The songs are just wonderful and I loved all of them. There's an infectious spirit alive on the screen when the performances are happening that are undeniable
• Entertaining choreography throughout making the song numbers that much more enjoyable
• Jackman can always lead a film and he was the perfect choice here as he's clearly enthusiastic about the whole thing
• Remainder of cast looks to be having fun too and Efron+Zendaya 4ever
• Teaches several lessons well through the actual music and even if they're a little on the nose and blanket statements, the sentiment still comes across as genuine
• A very enjoyable time at the movies, even for someone like myself who doesn't necessarily enjoy musicals. I had a blast

Rath's Review Score |  8/10