The Greatest Showman (2017)
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The Greatest Showman Movie Review
The Greatest Showman is a 2017 musical biopic directed by Michael Gracey and starring Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and Zac Efron. It’s a very entertaining, dazzling film.
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“The noblest art is that of making others happy“
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It’s the story about famous circus showman P. T. Barnum and how he came to fame and helped create opportunities for minorities and “freaks”. Yes, this is not a real life story and they obviously took huge liberties in showing his life and career. But that was never a problem for me as the film never claimed itself to be a truthful biopic and it is not a documentary, but a musical fictitious flick and thus all those critics who found fault with its historical inaccuracies are unprofessional.
However, the plot still is pretty weak and certainly the most subpar aspect of an otherwise stellar film. Yes, the film is hugely entertaining, charming and just very fun to watch and it flies by quickly, but it is very slight and obvious in its politically correct overtones. They made a timely movie out of a 19th century story and their intentions were obvious.
Hugh Jackman is excellent in the main role, very charismatic and terrific in both acting and singing/dancing. 2017 was an awesome year for him as witnessed by this film and ‘Logan’. Zac Efron is okay, but mostly very forgettable. Michelle Williams is reliably excellent and I liked her character and the relationship between the two.
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Rebecca Ferguson is also very good as Jenny Lind, but I really hated the supposed cheating part that was so cliched and dull in the third act. As for the acrobats and performers, they are all excellent as a team, but individually only Zendaya and Keala Settle stand out while others are mostly underutilized.
The Greatest Showman is at its best during the musical numbers of course as it is a musical and thus it should be forgiven for its weaker plot. The score here is fantastic and I loved how the musical numbers were executed and so well performed and sung.
The Greatest Show is a very good opening number – fun and exciting. A Million Dreams is one of my favorites here and although it has very typical lyrics as do all the songs here, it is so well sung and accompanied by lovely visuals and excellent scenery. The chorus is terrific.
The Other Side and Rewrite the Stars are the weakest links here as they are very forgettable, but From Now On is pretty solid and Never Enough is gorgeously sung and with such a phenomenal, emotionally moving chorus. But of course the highlight is This Is Me as the song that shamefully lost an Oscar to Remember Me from ‘Coco’. It is the most purely entertaining, exciting and appealing number accompanied by the film’s most important, most beautiful scene.
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The film is also beautiful across the board. The visuals are obviously CGI, but still so well done and so beautiful that I loved watching it and I regret not seeing it in the theatre. The production design and sets are outstanding, the effects are terrific, the costumes are simply splendid and the hair and makeup as well. It has a lot of memorable, beautifully utilized imagery and the film is also well paced and edited. I just wish that the direction and dialogue are better as well as the story and in that manner the film disappointed me, but musically it was a blast to watch.
The Greatest Showman certainly has a weaker, familiar storyline and it is overall pretty simplistic in that regard, but it succeeds as a musical as the score is excellent and it has a bunch of memorable, terrific musical numbers with the highlights being Never Enough, A Million Dreams and of course This Is Me which shamefully lost the Oscar for Best Original Song. The movie is also visually arresting thanks to terrific costumes, sets and imagery and is just so hugely entertaining that it flies by quickly.
