The Greatest Showman (PG) ★★★
THERE’S something inherently charming about this passion project for star Hugh Jackman in how it acts like the glitzy musical of Hollywood’s Golden Age never went away. It tells the sweepingly romantic story of PT Barnum, the 19th-century impresario and founder of the famous travelling Barnum & Bailey Circus, billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth”.
Starting out life on the streets as the penniless son of a down-on-his-luck tailor, Barnum grows up with the hope of becoming a successful man able to give his wife Charity (Michelle Williams) and his two daughters, Caroline and Helen (Austyn Johnson and Cameron Seely), the life they deserve.
He embarks on a mission to create a sensational stage show that will shock and amaze audiences. Openly embracing the supposedly insulting description “circus” written by hard-to-please theatre critic Mr Bennett (Paul Sparks), he sets out to find people perceived as freaks and outcasts by society because of their physical differences and abilities to perform, helping them feel like they have a place to belong.
Debut director Michael Gracey doesn’t have the safety net of existing songs or built-in audience to fall back on – this is a musical conjured up of entirely new songs by duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, lyricists of La La Land’s Oscar-winning City of Stars.
Punctuating the plot rather than being sung-through, most of the tunes are so ostentatious, soaring and endlessly catchy that you’ll think you’ve heard them before. Hum-worthy highlights include the empowering This Is Me and Rewrite The Stars, which sends Zendaya’s trapeze artist Anne and Zac Efron’s upper-class protégé and Barnum’s business partner Phillip soaring above the circus floor.
The thematic connective tissue between the songs is fairly thin; the idea of people being embraced in spite of their differences is surface level at best, while the family drama feels somewhat pedestrian. It also doesn’t do much to explore the darker side of the real-life Barnum, from his perpetuation of hoaxes for profit to his dismissive treatment of singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) whom he tours the country with all while his attention is kept firmly on his financial bottom line.
It’s undoubtedly a glorified and hagiographical portrayal. But Jackman is endlessly great value as the man himself, showing off his all-singing, all-dancing talents in a role that it feels like he was born to play.
This is one most definitely for musical fans; it’s not going to convince anyone with any aversion to characters randomly breaking into song. But there’s much to get swept away by if you’re willing to embrace the kind of unashamedly cheesy, rousing show tune spectacle it has to offer.
The film is released on Boxing Day.
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