A couple of weeks after seeing it, I’m still not sure what to think about the musical The Greatest Showman.  It’s a musical (loosely) based on the life of P. T Barnum (Hugh Jackman) and his attempt to make a living — for himself and others in his show — by putting together a collection of unusual people and acts for the amusement and enjoyment of audiences.  As high-intentioned as I think the project is, or was meant to be at any rate, I do think it lamentably fails to escape the very traps its drama sets into motion.

Michael Gracey’s film is a beautifully mounted production, with some wonderfully effective stylistic flourishes.  Technically, it is a very well made movie.  My issues with it are thematic and stylistic.  In terms of style, it suffers from what critics were saying about Chicago fifteen years ago: that every musical number is designed as a showstopper.  I think that criticism apples far more here, as the film has little sense of ebb and flow, but only razzle-dazzle, bang! bang! bang!  Thematically the script purports to treat Barnum’s unusual finds, his acts such as the Bearded Lady, conjoined Chinese twins, little person Tom Thuimb, et al, with respect and even awe (especially in the show’s primary song, “This is Me”), and yet Barnum consistently exploits his new friends and abandons them (and his family) at the first opportunity to tour with singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson).  He rarely listens to what they tell him, and only seems interested in keeping them in line for his shows.

The songs (from the La La Land songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul) are catchy and effective, but Gracey’s determination to make every single one of them the most memorable musical number anyone’s ever seen is a bit much to take.  I also never got a handle on what his acts were to do onstage.  As it is they sing and dance (the Bearded Lady is exceptional), but they wouldn’t be doing that on stage in 1850, would they?  I think not.  The film eschews realism and a gritty look at what “entertainers” of the period were expected to do and made to perform in favor of this glossy musical melange of pretty images and happy faces.  It just never sat right with me, either as I watched it, or now.

I do not doubt that P. T. Barnum deserves a biopic, but this isn’t it.  This is a bizarre, socially motivated, wish-fulfillment project casting the entrepreneur as savior of the disenfranchised.  Maybe there’s some truth to that, but I surely wasn’t convinced.  And frankly, I was more curious about the lives of his “acts” rather than Barnum himself.  This movie is as if “Up with People” decided to stage a personal tribute to Barnum, the dreamer who invented “show business.”  Bunk.  ☆ ☆.  3 March 2018.