The Greatest Showman

Release Date: December 20, 2017

Watch Date: February 26, 2023

 

    I’m going to be honest with you, I had never before in my life had any desire to watch this film. I’d never heard anything about it, I never knew whether or not it was good or bad. I just knew that Hugh Jackman had been in a movie about P.T. Barnum, who was a complicated man who treated complicated people in a fashion that could be up for some debate.

    Now, I don’t personally know much about P.T. Barnum to have much of an opinion on the man. I don’t know how well he paid the human beings he used as exhibits, if they felt taken advantage of, or if they were. I don’t know if he treated them with respect. I don’t know how they felt about being put on display as ‘freaks’. So I can’t provide any commentary on just how historically accurate this film is. Probably not that accurate, if I had to wager a guess.

    But see, I am on TikTok, and on TikTok they kept using bits and pieces of one of the songs from the musical, “The Other Side”, in their skits, and so then I had to watch it because how could I not? Which meant that Bob had to watch it, and while he doesn’t hate the concept of musicals I don’t think he’s ever really excited to actually watch one.

    We were both, however, pretty surprised because this is actually a pretty fantastic musical. The songs are catchy, upbeat, well performed and easy to find yourself singing along to and humming for days afterwards. The story is heartfelt, and while P.T. Barnum is probably the weakest link in the story, the rest of the members of his circus are incredibly relatable and inspirational.

    The surprise I did not expect was a side story about biracial couples, which I actually enjoyed tremendously. I do not know how realistic a biracial couple would have been in P.T. Barnum’s time, but “Rewrite the Stars” is a beautiful song, and there is a ton of chemistry between Efron and Zendaya, so that their desire to be together is believable, and something you’re rooting for. Which is the opposite really, of Barnum’s relationship with his wife – while I rooted for his family and his children and as a whole, I didn’t really want his wife to stay with him. He didn’t seem to know her all that well, he gave her the life that he thought she wanted, not the life she kept telling him she was happy with.

    For an upbeat, catchy musical that will probably have a couple of songs finding their way on to your playlist, this is probably a great place to start looking. Bob, who wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to think of it, but after watching Hamilton late last year and knowing how much he likes Hugh Jackman was kind of hopeful, loved it, and it’s made the top of our live action list, a fact I found surprising, but am incredibly pleased by.