Hello people of the inter-webs, I am the honest, artistic and single. C.M. Young and I’m going to dazzle you with The Greatest Showman review – what I like, dislike about it and my thoughts of it. (Spoilers ahead if you haven’t see it and want please stop reading this then go see it and back here because I get very lonely, if you have or don’t care to see it continue on my friends.) Okay for those who are left, thank you and tell me do you wanna go? Where it’s covered in all the colored lights, Where the runaways are the night? Because it was amazing and I loved it. If you can forget all the historic inaccuracies with the real PT Barnum and the wrongful treatment of the animals, you’ll enjoy it the movie.
But first off let’s begin with what the movie is about. The Greatest Showman is about the story of PT Barnum (portrayed by the great Hugh Jackman) starting Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, but in the movie it’s just know as the Barnum’s Circus during the late 19 century and at the beginning of the movie the song The Greatest Show showed Barnum dancing and singing as the people cheer, and then we are shown a flashback as a young Barnum is full with dreams of a greater life for me and a young Charity, Barnum’s future wife. Then as a adult he and his family are very poor and not live the life he promised Charity. From that now we see how the Circus of “freaks” with a what some people of that period called them, (The Circus features a three leg man, a dog boy, a “Irish” giant, bearded lady, twins who both have albinism and African acrobat brother and sister duo. The sister is named Anne Wheeler a trapeze artist (portrayed by the lovely Zendaya.) takes off with large audiences while receiving poor reviews. As Barnum is blinded by the cheers of the people, he loses his way and lost everything when the building houses the circus is burn down to none thing and “cheating” on his wife with Jenny Lind a famous opera singer. At his lowness point, the “freaks” he tried to distance himself after he gains favor with the aristocratic patrons he longed for as a low class child, the “freaks” remain him that it wasn’t the reason why he started the circus in the first. It ends with the same song as it begun with a new circus place and Barnum gives full control of the circus to his partner Philip Carlyle (a playwright who is portrayed by Zac Efron.) so he focus on his family.
Now to my review: What worked was the right choice of casting Hugh Jackman as the title character. Hugh Jackman was the great showman with his amazing singing voice, he portrays Barnum as a man who wants his children to not suffered what he want through as a child who was looked down because of what his family’s status in that period of society, who loves his wife and two daughters and can clearly see the showman within him even before the circus. I also liked Zac Efron and Zendaya’s characters, the small star-cross lovers subplot was amazing, that was my favorite part of the movie. When I hear Never Enough — another song from the movie — I can still see Philip reach to hold Anne’s hand and feel sad when he pulls back after notices his parents nearby. Because, well, everyone knows that in time period African Americans were not treated with the upmost respect, they are only seen as “the help” as Philip’s father puts it and a interracial couple was more then taboo back than. But I do admit that the intimacy those characters had was beyond great. But I do also have to admit that we were suppose to believe that Anne would love Philip right away. Someone like her in that time period doesn’t simply fall in love with someone on a dime especially a white man who in that period look down on African Americans. Where as we can clearly see Philip became enchanted by this beautiful vixen. Which is total unrealistic of the time period. That was the only thing I disliked about the movie. Besides that I love it, I love the story and the music. My favorite songs from the soundtrack has to be The Great Show, A Million Dreams, Come Alive, This is Me (which won a best original song at the Golden Globe Wards), Rewrite the Stars and From on Now. The movie was so good, I saw it again a week after the first time. Good movie for the family to watch. I would seriously recommend it to my friends to go and see it.
-C.M.Young