55% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
It's alright
Watch it if you: Enjoy watching musicals;
Care more for great songs and dance performances rather than writing and plot
Inspired by P.T. Barnum's creation of the circus, The Greatest Showman explores what it may have been like to start up a circus in 18th century America.
I was really keen to watch this since I've been seeing the trailer for this over and over and over again (not deliberately, just every time I see a movie in the theatre), constantly getting 'This is Me' stuck in my head when I hadn't even heard the full song! And while it's not the best film or best musical ever, it still didn't disappoint because in the end it was a fun musical with great performances and superbly catchy songs.
This film doesn't have a very high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but that's mainly because of the criticism of having this film portray P. T. Barnum as some revolutionary visionary who protected his circus 'freaks' and wanted them to have better lives. No, in actuality P. T. Barnum was kind of a jackass who faked a lot of his 'exhibits', exploited his 'freaks', and did everything (even philanthropy) purely because of the profits. While they sort of touch on Hugh Jackman's character as being a bit of a con artist and gathering his 'human attractions' just for a buck, they still portray him as a nice guy who genuinely cares for them.
While I agree with needing to accurately portray people in movies, I don't recall this movie actually saying it was based on a true story or true events. I know in the ads it said it was inspired by true events, which is fair enough since it was inspired by the creation of the circus. But I guess having that same name sort of puts a sour taste on the movie because you have this feeling that something is just off. Imagine if there was a musical out there celebrating Hitler as a nice person. It's not the same, but if you think about it, it's understandable why a good movie can get low ratings because the character is nothing like their real life persona.
So I think if they just made this movie about someone who creates a circus, someone other than P. T. Barnum, then it would have been more positively reviewed. I don't even mean change how the character was written, I mean literally just change the character's name and keep everything else the same. I think that way it would have been received better.
Apart from that, there's not much else to fault on this movie. I did find it was a bit sloppy in terms of writing and editing, like the plot and the transitions between scenes were a bit all over the place, but in the end I went in not wanting a great movie with great writing, I just wanted a great musical with catchy songs and great feel-good music performances, and I got that.
All the songs were great, and all the dancing was great too.
Each song has a very unique feel to it, either because of the singers, the dancing, or even the set location. Seriously I was so amazed that not every single song was just in the circus setting. Each set choreography was great because they adapted the song and dance to match where they were. For example, I loved the song 'The Other Side' which Zac Efron and Hugh Jackman sing together, and in the background there's a cool bartender doing crazy moves, and the choreography includes the usage (and drinking) of shot glasses.
I also loved when Michelle Williams and Hugh Jackman were dancing on their roof to 'A Million Dreams' in between the white sheets hung up, it looked really magical. And Zendaya and Zac Efron singing 'Rewrite the Stars' was another great visual performance, since they were dancing on the trapeze and it looked amazing.
That is possibly my favourite song of the whole soundtrack, but I also really like 'This is Me' and 'Never Enough' (which is not actually Rebecca Ferguson singing, but someone called Loren Allred who was on The Voice U.S. in one of the seasons). But honestly, all of the songs are really good.
So in the end, this wasn't the perfect film. The writing lacked a bit and the movie felt a bit all over the place with so many things happening, but I understand they didn't want to cut much out of the movie because these plot elements made way for some really great song and dance performances. Hugh Jackman is such a legend, being a quadruple threat with acting, singing, dancing, and being a great action hero. The songs really make this film, and I know what I'll be singing for the next month or so.
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