Movie Reaction: The Greatest Showman

Formula: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story - karate + the circus

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