I know absolutely nothing about P.T. Barnum. A month ago, if you'd asked me, I wouldn't've known that was a real person. After seeing The Greatest Showman, I'm not sure how much more I actually know about him. I'd estimate that maybe 15% of what's in the movie is true or not an exaggeration, and I'm completely fine with that. A phrasing that I've liked every since I first heard it that Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is "a lionized account of the life of the martial arts superstar". In that movie, turning events in Lee's life into intricate fights somehow felt truer to Bruce Lee than an actual biopic would've. The same goes for turning Barnam's life into a showstopping musical.
There's an episode of any TV show with kids at a
school in which one of the kids leaves the main group and tries to fit in with
the "cool kids". By the end of the episode, this character sees the
cool group for the ugly people they are and comes crawling back to the original
group of misfits, realizing the error of his or her ways. In my mind, I'm
imagining characters from Recess, but any show will do. Well, that's
more or less the plot of The Greatest Showman. It's about Barnam trying
to gain acceptance from high society. It's actually about a lot more than that
too, which is sort of the main problem. The film covers a lot of beats in
Barnam's life. There are numerous subplots going on with many characters. It's
too much. Great musicals can be a lot of things but plot heavy isn't usually
one of them. I could start picking at a lot of individual parts of the story
that don't work, but I'd rather just underline the central point: there's so
much story that nothing gets enough time to work.
I'm pretty used to ignoring the story for a musical.
Watching a musical for a story is like going to a concert to listen to the band
kill time between sets. The Greatest Showman doesn't have the greatest
songs or the best choreography I've ever seen*, but it tries so damn hard. And,
the harder it worked, the more I liked it. Sure, it's nice when a movie or an
actor makes something look effortless. There's also something great about
watching something that you know took 30 takes and a week of prep to get right.
You can almost see the performers counting there steps at times. I liked that I
could see that determination. At times, the musical numbers feel like when you
get a new keyboard and try using all the special settings at once. However,
they keep toying with everything until it mostly works. As long as this things
were moving, I really enjoyed the film.
*Just to be clear, I actually did enjoy a lot of the
music and dancing. I just don't see this soundtrack becoming a sensation.
It helps that Hugh Jackman is the best actor of the
current era to star in something called The Greatest Showman. While he's
enjoyable and best known as Wolverine, Jackman always looks like he's having
the most fun when he's able to sing and dance. This is an ideal role for him.
Michelle Williams and Rebecca Ferguson are nice singers too. Zac Efron and
Zendaya came out of the Disney factory, so you know they can bring it. They got
the right people for the movie and that goes a long way.
I'm an easy judge on musicals. They just needs to be
competent and I'll have a good time. The Greatest Showman is competent
and I did have a good time. The story drags it down too much and too often for
me to really urge anyone to see it. I'll say this though. I saw a 10 pm showing
of this in an otherwise empty theater and I had no trouble finding energy while
watching this.
Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend
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