The Greatest Show?
What should have been an inspirational story about being true to yourself and recognising your differences as unique and special qualities, is lost in predictable and pointless storylines.
Phineas Taylor Barnum (Hugh Jackman), a poor tailors son, grows up falling in love with the rich daughter of one of his father’s clients. He was determined to make a better life for himself despite the doubts of Charity’s (Michelle Williams) father. He dreams of fame and fortune while struggling to keep a roof over the head of his wife and two daughters. His ideas begin by buying a museum full of dead, stuffed animals which evolves into “P.T. Barnum’s Circus”.
The circus becomes famous for starring the “weird” such as a bearded lady, dwarf, an obese man and a man covered in hair. I was looking forward to seeing how the movie would inspire its audience to overcome their own differences and be brave as they were to put their “weirdness” on display. Unfortunately the entire cast of the circus are background characters except for Philip (Zac Efron) and Anne (Zendaya) whose love is forbidden due to her race. We’ve seen this all before and they didn’t show anything new or unique about their relationship. Their song together is one of the best however with some really beautiful choreography.
Although Barnum is set up to seem like he is doing everything out of love for his family, he is really just selfish and power hungry. There is an entire plot segment about an already famous opera singer, Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), which could have been taken out, it’s just an excuse to add in unnecessary conflict, and the film would’ve still told the same story without basically ruining the dreamy love story between Barnum and Charity.
I still found the movie enjoyable thanks to some good songs but mostly the really well put together choreography. The dance numbers were the best part and the movement in scenes such as those that take place in the bar are all filmed really well. It’s a shame that some parts were filmed so well and then others were so obviously in front of a green screen. The songs didn’t flow too well throughout the film and I couldn’t enjoy the songs until about a minute in when I could stop thinking about how uncomfortable it was starting the song. Perhaps it just didn’t feel real enough, drawing attention to the fact that they would have been recorded in a studio beforehand. What definitely didn’t feel real was Barnum using an elephant as his preferred mode of transport!
While I have a lot of problems with the film, overall it was still enjoyable. I just expected to gain a lot more as an audience and walk out feeling inspired and different having had watched it. The cast was amazing but could have been used so much more, could’ve taken inspiration from the high theatricality of the shows they were trying to show off.