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MOVIE REVIEW: The Greatest Showman

Garth Cremona (RIP)

Hugh Jackman’s passion project comes to the big screen after 20 years of being on his wishlist.  It’s the story of the showman and freak show creator PT Barnum.  From his humble start in life as the son of a tailor who was living from commission to commission to the struggling clerk and the eventual businessman of the strange.  It’s an all singing, all dancing, joyful piece of cinematic fun that will be a festive favourite for years to come.

Passion projects from stars, well they are mostly the bombs that you think they are going to be, passion for all your projects is important, but sometimes that passion overloads the film.  Over the years doing this job, while fighting sea monsters, don’t ask, the amount of passion projects I have seen from stars from all over the world that are actually good I can count on one hand.  So after this years Logan screening and I found out this was Mister Jackman’s next film out was this I thought that it was going to be a long slide down.  I was wrong once again.

I’ll get this out-of-the-way early doors, the reason this is a three-point five rather than a four or four point five is that the story of PT Barnum is glossed over in huge cases during the film to fit in the song and dance numbers.  That would normally discount the score in greater numbers but the music, the lyrics, and the motions of all the cast lead me to enjoy this film.  I can see this becoming a firm choice for Christmas Day viewing for many years to come.  I did want that deeper understanding of the man who turned negatives into positives and showed the world that marketing is part of everyday life and negative reviews were something to cherish because I admire what the real man had done with his life.  From nothing to create an entertainment empire is something that we need more of.

When it comes to the music, lyrics, and dances there are few people who will do it better than this group of people these days.  The song This is Me will be used in many circumstances of people to say that they are who they are.  Like the Hello Dolly song Rain on my Parade it’s a song of empowerment.  Empowerment is the main theme of the film with Barnum, aka Hugh Jackman, travelling through society and taken those people viewed as outcasts due to some form of physical distinction, and giving them the power to make more of their lives,   When he opens the show he meets resistance from locals and the upper crust.

The casting is amazing with Michelle Williams playing a brilliantly understated Wife character to Barnum.   Zac Efron as the high society playwright who comes under Barnums wing goes back to his High School Musical days and shows there is no rust on the dancing bones.  He plays the romantic interest of Zendaya who shows a growing maturity with each role.  Also in what is probably one of her strongest performances to date Rebecca Ferguson plays an opera singer that comes to America under Barnum’s promotion.  There is a darkness in her role that the film needed desperately.

While lacking in the story department the entertainment part of the film is turned all the way up to eleven.  It’s glossy and fun, and if you don’t know much about Barnum before hand you won’t know much more after, but as modern musicals go the songs are fresh and the dancing is well rehearsed, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more.  It’s far from Logan but if you know someone who likes musicals then it’s going to be right up their alley.  I can see this, next year around this time, being a good bluray gift for my other half.  That is good, because after 12 years, I’m all done with new ideas.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Director: Michael Gracey
Writers: Jenny Bicks (screenplay by), Bill Condon (screenplay by)& more.. more credits
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron & more….. See full cast & crew

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Author Profile

Garth Cremona (RIP)
Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com
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