Review of The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman, directed by Michael Gracey, is a star-studded musical which blesses our eyes with Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Zendaya The movie starts with the character of Hugh Jackman, P.T Barnum, as a poor child who dreams of making it big to marry the girl of his dreams, Charity - the daughter of the man that he works for As it progresses, we see P.T marry Charity and have two wonderful daughters all the while trying to make it big to prove Charity's father that he's a husband worthy of having. P.T has an idea of opening a museum, which fails but her daughters suggest that his museum needs more life and "alive" things. So, P.T auditions for people with unique characteristics that will attract audiences and sees his museum transform into a circus. Now there are some technical and narrative problems in the overall film. To begin with, there is a clear lack of depth in plot and story. For instance, the film ditches exploring various characters' lives. For instance, it barely skims over the main plot points to give us a summarised, not to mention historically inaccurate, view of P.T Barnum's life. So what could have been an adventure of a film, the writers instead chose to make it appeal to a mass-audience and in the process gave us a hardly memoriable story. Secondly, I can't help but say it, that the movie uses its songs only to tighten it grip on the audiences' attention. The musical numbers were forgettable, loud and for the most part glossy. Although, the choreography was decent if not brilliant. The fact that most of the acting performances were too sweet-mouthed and cringy also never helped TGS's cause. Zac Efron managed to shine, Zendaya as well, but Hugh Jackman gave a very ordinary performance and relied on his star power for the most part. Most dialogues were melodramatic and the presence of the extras struggled to contribute to the feel-goody nature of the film. The screenplay had some cliched plot points: a love triangle; the rise, fall and eventual rise of P.T Barnum. The predictability created disinterest and caused the film to fall flat on its wheels by the time the painfully long third act even began.