THE GREATEST SHOWMAN REVIEW

As much as I love “crappy” TV, like Survival Of The Fittest, or America’s Next Top Model, when it comes to film I am very critical. Especially when I’m going to the cinema to watch it. I very rarely go to the cinema as I try to avoid paying money for something I might not enjoy. I’d rather wait for it to come on Sky Movies and watch it in the comfort of my own home. But due to the hype around “The Greatest Showman” I payed to see it along with my friends. Being rated 4 stars and having a budget of $84,000,000 I still went into this film a bit wary, just because I know how critical I can be, but I’d seen so many people raving about it and the soundtrack. It’s safe to say, I wish I hadn’t spent my money on it! Here’s why:

Story

The main issue I had with The Greatest Showman was the bizarre, yet predictable, storyline. The film begins with Barnum as a young boy, the son of a tailor, who becomes homeless when his father passes away. “Within the space of one song, he has grown up, married his sweetheart – played by Michelle Williams – and settled into a Dickensian office job.” says BBC’s Michelle Williams. This was the first instance where I was disappointed. I assumed, that this story would be a coming of age film where we see Barnum go from a homeless child to the greatest showman. That was not the case.

Once the song finishes, Barnum is 20-ish years old and is pursuing marrying his well-off childhood sweetheart. He then magically gets a job, which seeming as he was homeless and I assume had no education, I didn’t really understand. Anyway, things move on and he buys a museum dedicated to stuffed oddities which is a giant flop. Thanks to his daughter’s imaginative personality, he decides to add some living oddities into his museum and henceforth creates a circus, which in reality is more like a “human zoo” described by The Globe and Mail’s John Semley.

His ‘circus’ of oddities does very well and he makes a lot of money from it. What is supposed to be a celebration of uniqueness within humanity turns into Barnum “undeniably exploiting their suffering for cash, and what the movie describes as a “celebration of humanity” was to many 19th century consumers an easy way to poke fun at and feel superior to men and women who could be “othered.”” says Salon TV’s Matthew Rozsa. This was something I was very disappointed in, as the whole premise and moral behind the film as a whole was a celebration of humanity and how being different isn’t a bad thing. This seemed to be Barnum’s key moral, but he gets bored and fame-hungry so pursues ‘actual talent’ in a Swedish singer and abandons his oddities. When I didn’t think I could dislike the story more, it completely shifts into a different direction and that key moral is forgotten about completely.

One thing I didn’t know when I went to watch this film, is that PT Barnum is a historical figure and this film is based on a true story. What I also didn’t know is how inaccurate the film is and how much it sugar coats Barnum’s history. When I did some more research I found out about Joice Heth. “Joice Heth [was] blind and almost totally immobile, Heth was a black slave purchased by P.T. Barnum and exhibited amongst his circus of "oddities." Barnum claimed she was 161 years old, and also the "mammy" (that is, a nursing maid) of George Washington. Both claims were demonstrably false. Not even death released Heth from her contract with Barnum. When she passed in 1836, the opportunistic impresario hired a physician to perform a live, on-stage autopsy for a crowd of 1,500 paying customers.” explains The Globe and Mail’s John Semley. This doesn’t effect how I viewed the film or how it’s made but oh my it does make me hate the main protagonist more. I don’t think I could watch The Greatest Showman a second time now knowing this information.

And finally, we get onto the topic of sub-plots. Or should I say the lack of sub-plots. The only characters granted enough interest to deserve a sub-plot was the trapeze artist Anne Wheeler and Barnum’s business partner Carlyle. And this was only because they were acted by Zendaya and Zac Efron, so were given more screen time. Their entire sub-plot is about the difficulties of inter-racial dating and association, which is good to see, but personally, I cared a lot more about the bearded lady and it was a shame they weren’t given any kind of humanising backstory.

Music

One of the biggest parts of a musical is of course, the music. And I’d say some of the music is this film’s only redeeming feature. Although I do agree that the music is good and the choreography that goes with it is fun and makes you feel good, it has absolutely nothing on films like Mamma Mia or Grease. I did enjoy the music, but I haven’t listened to the soundtrack since, apart from to write this review to remind myself. Which is unlike the rest of the world, as the soundtrack has been number 1 for the past 6 weeks. Here is what I thought of each of the songs on the soundtrack, minus the reprise’s:

The Greatest Show: The beginning of the song starts with a strong vocal complimented with a powerful beat. Before the lyrics fully start, Hugh Jackman sings a couple soft lines, so soft I actually can’t make out what he’s singing. When the full lyrics start I am just waiting for the chorus. It has an empowering feel to it and lures you into singing a long. And can we talk about the bearded lady’s high notes and ad-libs?! Oh my she is very talented and so underrated. The only negative thing I can say about this song is how hidden Zendaya’s vocals are when she sings along with Zac. Other than that, this is one of my favourite songs from the entire film.

A Million Dreams: This song is sung beautifully by the young Barnum, and it’s so adorable to listen too. You can hear the youth and hope in his voice, it goes perfectly with the meaning of the song. The chorus is as powerful as it is sweet, it’s one of the songs where I can visualise the film in my head when I listen to it. The transition between the young and older Barnum follows through about halfway through, but the inclusion of Barnum’s wife following their love story is beautiful. I don’t think I’d like the song as much if Barnum’s wife didn’t sing it, and it was purely the young and older Barnum singing a solo.

Come Alive: This is one of the songs that doesn’t really do much for me until it really gets going. Like The Greatest Show, when Hugh sings his voice gets lost behind the backing track and you have to really listen to actually hear what he’s saying. When the tempo and track shifts and it becomes a group song, it all changes and I begin to really like the song. It’s the empowering anthem surrounding the “different is great” and “embrace your uniqueness” theme that the film possesses.

The Other Side: This song is from one of my favourite scenes in the whole film. I think that’s why I like the song so much because I love this scene. This song is where Barnum persuades Carlyle to join the circus and help him make it high-end. How the throw drinks and shots to each other across the bar whilst singing and dancing makes me want to attempt it next time I go out. It makes drinking look so fabulous.

Never Enough: This song gives me CHILLS. Before seeing the film I saw Gabriella Lindley’s cover of this song on YouTube and it was phenomenal. I was a bit worried about hearing it in the film just incase it wasn’t as good, but wow oh wow Rebecca Ferguson’s vocals are incredible. She sang it was such passion I was covered in goosebumps and I was actually close to tears watching it in the cinema.

This Is Me: The first half of this song is my absolute favourite. The bearded lady gets her own anthem and that is something I can completely get behind. I love how much she features on the soundtrack, it almost makes me more angry about how much she’s slept on in the actual film. When everyone else gets involved, it makes me happy, but I just live for her vocals and wish it was her solo song it’s I’m brutally honest. It starts so strong and then kind of goes down hill for me. But she finishes the song with so much emotion, passion and the high notes and ad-libs over the chorus are just incredible.

Rewrite The Stars: This is the love anthem between Zendaya and Zac Efron, and honestly, it just doesn’t do much for me. The message behind the song is lovely but I just didn't care for their sub-plot that I equally didn’t care for their love song. I feel like it lacked the passion and fierceness of the other songs. I remember watching this scene and I was just waiting for it to be over because I wanted to see the other characters and see what was going on elsewhere. But with all this said, both Zendaya and Zac’s vocals are fantastic and they executed it well, it just didn’t do much for me personally.

Tightrope: This is the ‘missing you’ song sang by Barnum’s wife whilst he was away on the Swedish singer’s tour. Similarly to Rewrite The Stars, I don’t really care for this song because I didn’t care for the storyline at the time. The storyline had derailed so much from what I thought it was going to be about, I got to a point where I just didn’t care for it anymore. I think the negative attitude I had towards the storyline at this point reflects onto the specific songs, because her vocals are great and the song is nice, I just wouldn’t choose to listen to it again.

From Now On: This was Barnum’s redemption song. But by this point I was so done with Barnum and his stupid life choices I wasn't willing to accept his redemption. I only started to enjoy it when the beat picked up and, once again, when the bearded lady joined in!! Honestly, she could make any song 10 times better. Another reason this song annoyed me was because he made such a big deal about getting the circus back together after forgetting about the people he did all this for, and then gave the circus to Carlyle and abandoned them again. But to be honest, Carlyle cared about them way more than Barnum ever did and left his privileged life to join them, so deserved to take over and carry the circus on.

Special Effects

This might be something that no one else has even commented on because it’s such a small topic, but oh my god did the special effects annoy me. I mentioned this to my friends once the film finished and they didn’t even notice it. I understand that they needed to CGI some of the animals and that’s completely fine, but CGI-ing the horses was completely unnecessary. There are horses that are used in television and film which are trained and used for stunts, it was stupid to not use them. The way they were CGI-ed was unnatural, and as someone who has horses of their own, I picked up on it so quickly and it was something that irked me.

However, the lighting and sets are incredible and so authentic. However the stunts, is the ‘Rewrite The Stars’ scene. The CGI wasn’t done very well and the change between the actors and stunt doubles was done quite obviously. It was just something I noticed early on and then couldn't unsee for the rest of the scene.

Overall

So overall, I am not a massive fan of this film. As I said the only redeeming feature is the soundtrack and even that has holes in for me. I felt like they made the storyline inaccurate to the history, and that would’ve been fine if the storyline they went with was good, which it wasn’t. If I had watched this at home with my family I wouldn’t be so negative because all I did was waste a couple hours, but this was time and money spent on something I didn’t like.

I believe this film is good if you’re not a naturally critical person. I guarantee if my family watched it they would absolutely love it, because they’re not like me and wouldn’t find flaws within it. It’s a good film to watch if you haven’t studied media or fully appreciate the craft, because the things that make the film bad are the things you wouldn’t necessarily notice.

If you want a feel-good film with good music then this is your film. But if you’re anything like me and know you’ll find flaws and pick holes, don't waste your time and most definitely don’t waste your money!

Overall, I would rate The Greatest Showman a 4 out of 10.

Tune in next time for another ramble about something I like, or a rant about something I don’t.

Hannah xo