Film Review: The Greatest Showman

I have a special place in my heart for Hugh Jackman, the man seems to be made up in equal parts of raw talent, unbounded enthusiasm and complete charm. With Jackman taking on the main role of P.T Barnum, the original creator of the circus as we know it, I was looking forward to a glorious extravaganza of entertainment. But I was left with a hollow disappointment and a slightly sour taste in my mouth.

The costumes were incredible and the cinematography was decent but the general story was pretty sparse and as predictable as it could be. The clunky plot drifted along with a noticeable lack of heart or soul. The depiction of Barnum's rise from the streets to the stage felt very contrived, which is not a surprise if you know the real facts that Barnum started off as a shopkeeper before moving into entertainment without any real melodrama, just strong ambitions and a good sense of what sells. In fairness, the real story about the real man might not sell very well on the big screen - while Jackman’s Barnum fought homelessness and hunger, extra marital scandals and social snobbery, the only major dive in P.T. Barnum’s career was a business investment that went bad. What was interesting about his life, were his shows and his performers. 

While one of Barnum’s major stars, General Tom Thumb (Sam Humphries), does play a prominent part, I did find that the other “human curiosities” take too much of a backseat in the storyline. They perform in front of us, but we never get to the heart of many of their personal stories - where they came from, what their backgrounds were and what they might have suffered before Barnum picked them up. Maybe that’s not the point of the film - would it detract from Barnum himself? But without some knowledge of who these people are, we can’t really fully appreciate the importance of what Barnum did for them (or did not do depending on what you believe). I was also a little disappointed not to see a mention of the “Feejee” mermaid, one of Barnum’s more bizarre exhibitions of a half fish, half monkey creature that duped the nation, and something that he is now fondly remembered for,

It is a musical, so I have to mention the song numbers because they do play a really prominent part. Considering the era of the story and the choice of accompanying it with modern pop it is an interesting artistic decision. I can see what they were trying to do, especially considering the Golden Globe win for This is Me, which is one of the only parts of the film that I felt emotionally invested in. But there was something that didn’t quite sit right with me about the songs generally. They didn’t seem to gel properly with the story, pulling me out of the plot time and again because they were too self-aware. To put it bluntly, it’s Glee meets The Elephant Man which is not something I ever thought I would write.