The Greatest Showman *** (2017, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson) – Movie Review

Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron bring much style and charm to debut director Michael Gracey’s cheesy but pleasant and appealing musical based on the life of the American showmen Phineas Barnum and Phillip Carlyle. Those who like musicals and 2017 show tunes are well taken care of. They are written by Justin Paul and Benj Pasek, and notably include the showstopping hit This Is Me.

In the story by Jenny Bicks, Phineas Barnum’s great love is his childhood sweetheart and later wife Charity (Michelle Williams) and his two daughters, Caroline and Helen (Austyn Johnson, Cameron Seely) but he is tempted away from his true path by his admiration for opera singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson).

The story, performances and songs are all good without being sensational. The production is superb, but there is way too much CGI and heavy editing. Let the music, songs and dances flow freely, please, none of this create it all in the editing suite stuff. It does no one any favours. Talking of heavy editing, it feels quite short and over-pared down at 105 minutes. Of course that stops it from being boring, but it doesn’t help it to be exhilarating.

There is obviously so much work involved in making this movie, and it does give the impression of being a labour of love, but frustratingly all the effort doesn’t show up on screen in a great musical.

Jackman is very good, though, the life and soul of the party, and so is Efron, both in their greatest showmen element. They even get to sing and dance together! Williams’s role is frightfully dull, so there is nothing she can do except be frightfully dull. Ferguson is quite exciting, though, and she makes you feel why Barnum is tempted away from wifely Charity. Ferguson’s singing voice as opera singer Jenny Lind is dubbed by Loren Allred. Although Jenny Lind is an opera singer, for some unexplained reason she only sings show tunes.

Zendaya’s role, as Efron’s love interest, the tightrope trapeze artiste Anne Wheeler, is frightfully dull, so there is nothing she can do either except be frightfully dull.

Thank goodness Keala Settle gives it a bit of wellie as the bearded lady Lettie Lutz, one of the many circus freaks Barnum slightly dodgily recruits in his pursuit of money and fame. Sam Humphrey is also outstanding as Tom Thumb.

The songs and the show have a relentlessly sweet message, though it’s the same corny old one about being yourself – cue This Is Me performed by Keala Settle – and keeping true to family and home – the ones you’ve made for yourself that is – cue From Now On performed by Jackman. As it’s a seasonal offering from Twentieth Century Fox, they’ll probably get away with the sweet cheese. There won’t be too many Scrooges in the paying audience, I guess. It’s a shame that Tiny Tim isn’t one of the circus acts.

I kind of think Barnum gets off a bit lightly, as the screenplay takes his side all the time, and sees all his little falls from grace as the pardonable acts of a nice bloke like Hugh Jackman. A more complicated script might have come up with more conflict and more real drama, and that would have given the other actors more to do, and more interesting stuff to do. But, it’s not that kind of film. It’s a girly fairy-tale movie, along Beauty and the Beast lines, hoping it will tap into that huge audience.

Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891).

Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon even build into their script a cynical reviewer/ journalist, who always looks on the bad side of Barnum’s activities. A critic is of course the lowest of the low, way, way lower than a producer/ entrepreneur, at least to film-makers. So anything Barnum’s critic has to say is automatic rubbish, providing Barnum with a way out of his opportunistic dealings.

I’m not saying Barnum was a bad thing, just that he obviously always wasn’t a good thing. His personal aim was ‘to put money in his own coffers’, and that idea is carefully concealed here. Barnum was a complex bunny apparently.

It’s a costly movie at $84,000,000 – and it looks it. But, as Barnum would be the first to understand, that gives them the problem of getting their money back. By 29 January 2018, it had taken a strong $239,691,350 worldwide, including $119,515,232 in the US. Musicals are still risky business, even after Beauty and the Beast and La La Land, so Chernin Entertainment, TSG Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox must be breathing a sigh of relief.

The film was released in the US on 20 December 2017, seven months after the Ringling Bros & Barnum and Bailey Circus permanently closed its doors.

It has three Golden Globe nominations – for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (Jackman), and Best Original Song (This Is Me) and won for Best Original Song (Benj Pasek, Justin Paul).

It has one Oscar nomination – for Best Original Song (This Is Me) (Benj Pasek, Justin Paul).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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