“The Greatest Showman” is an energetic (though often fictional) look at the life of P.T. Barnum. This purposely anachronistic presentation pairs a historical story with modern pop music to draw parallels between the hardships of “different” people of all generations. A project this bold is inevitably polarizing, which accounts for the disconnect between theater-goers that loved it and critics that hated it. I have a lot of strong options about it, many good but some bad. I’ll start with the obvious: the music is great. High Jackman’s performance parallels his character as his success depends on the supporting cast around him but he is the glue that holds everything together. His singing is quite good and his exuberant personality drives the energy of the film, though Keala Settle manages to steal the spotlight with her performance as the bearded lady. Zach Efron and Zendaya keep stride, setting the bar of musical expectations very high and then surpassing it. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have put together a playlist of hit after hit after hit that allows each character to express him and herself through song. It’s almost difficult to latch on to a single song during your first viewing because every song has an engaging and catchy quality. In fact, I believe that there was actually too much music! I adored “La La Land” because it was so organic. Every song was a natural extension of the scene and you didn’t even realize that they were singing until the song was halfway through. This film has that 1940’s musical quality where you can tell that the director was like “Wait, we probably need another song here. Quick, start singing!” With a 105-minute runtime, the editing team should have realized that the songs would feel rushed and required more transition between them. There are operas and there are musicals, but this one gets caught somewhere in the middle. There are sometimes entire scenes without a song, other times a single song linking multiple scenes together to show the passage of time, and other times, three unrelated songs run one into the next without a transition. This film needed to either commit to being a rock opera or take time to introduce each song with dialogue. I didn’t mind the anachronistic style of the music as it made all of these centuries-old events feel relevant... until Jenny Lind performs “Never Enough.” Let’s ignore the fact that Rebecca Ferguson didn’t actually sing the song for a moment. When a story emphasizes that a character is the greatest opera singer in Europe, I feel like she then has to sing opera. If they would have referred to her as the “greatest singer,” they could have given her a pop song to draw a parallel between society’s reaction toward opera singers of the 1800’s and our reaction to pop singers today. But specifying the character as an opera singer and then having her sing a pop song with cheesy arm motions just didn’t work for me. Back to the casting of Ferguson - I find it counterproductive and disingenuous to cast someone for their appearance and dub over their singing voice (arguably the most important part of the character) when there are so many actresses in Hollywood with the ability to sing. This isn’t the 1961 production of “West Side Story” where it was acceptable to cast Caucasian actors with dark makeup to play Latinos and dub over their voices because that they have the right look but can’t sing. Modern movies focus on creating realistic imagery instead of using our imagination to pretend that an actor is a different race and it is time to properly cast people with the abilities and specifications that fit the role. If they had cast Tom Thumb with an actor of a typical height and used green screen to shrink him down, people would have been completely annoyed. That’s how I feel about the casting of Ferguson (even though her portrayal of the character was very nice). The biggest takeaway that I have from this film is the production design. It was robbed of an Oscar nomination after producing epic set designs and inventive ways to use them. A few examples include the entire trapeze dance sequence between Zendaya and Efron, the final Greatest Show sequence with lions jumping through rings of fire, and that moment where the real-time bearded lady walks through the slow-motion ensemble as they jump in the air. Add the Barnum house, grandiose theaters, and the recreation of Barnum’s American Museum, and it’s hard to deny that the set design was one of the most creative of 2017. I was hoping that this film would be the next “Moulin Rouge” or “La La Land” but, in spite of a few issues with the production and editing of “The Greatest Showman,” I look forward to watching it again and listening to the soundtrack on repeat. If you love musicals, you need to see this movie.
[Pictured: Strong leads, a great supporting cast, and a stunning production design make "The Greatest Showman" worth seeing in spite of its faults]
