The Greatest Showman

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

Director : Michael Gracey

Year : 2017

Genre : Musical

Rating : *

Despite being full of exploitation, greed and cruelty, the story of entertainment-pioneer P.T Barnum has been heavily sanitised and set to music for 'The Greatest Showman', Michael Gracey's crowd-pleasing directorial debut that may have wowed audiences and impressed award voters but utterly failed to stir anything other than knuckle-chewing boredom and nerve-shredding irritation within yours truly. 

Starring Hugh Jackman in the titular role, the film traces Barnum's meteoric yet controversial rise from lowly servant to beloved icon of showbusiness while also exploring the effect his fame and fortune had on his wife and children as well as the deformed and disabled "freaks" who became the centrepiece of his theatrics. A passion project for many years now, Jackman throws himself into the role of P.T Barnum and while the movie regularly falls to pieces around him, what remains consistent throughout 'The Greatest Showman's interminable running time is his performance which is full of the same vigour that has become something of a trademark for the charismatic antipodean.

However, Hugh Jackman is the solitary bright spot in an otherwise wholly miserable cinematic experience whose problems range from poor character development, tonal inconsistencies, horribly anachronistic songs and, most crucially, an overwhelming sense of artificiality which prevented me from feeling any emotion towards the action taking place on the screen in front of me. Despite Jackman's good performance, the character of P.T Barnum is so unlikeable and so uncaring towards those around him that it quickly became grating whenever he appears on screen while the rest of the actors, who range from Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams, teen-heartthrob Zac Efron  and singer/Marvel alumni Zendaya are barely given any development whatsoever. Even the poor "freaks" are treated badly by the screenplay which holds itself up as a beacon of acceptance and equality for disabled or otherwise different people but is so ridiculously hackneyed and lazy that it comes across more patronising and emotionally hollow than spirited and uplifting.

And then there the songs by 'La La Land' composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul which, despite their award nominations, are simply dreadful to listen to. I have always had a problem when the score to a film fails to match the era in which it is set (ala 'Moulin Rouge') and 'The Greatest Showman' may be the worst perpetrator of this cinematic crime to date - and yes, I'm including Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' here too! Apart from the show-stopping 'This Is Me' which stands out as the only high point in the entire film, all the songs in 'The Greatest Showman' are monotonous, forgettable and utterly lacking in the melodic majesty that tranformed into Oscar gold for 'La La Land'. To compound the problem, all of the musical numbers are set against unconvincing CG backdrops amongst unconvincing CG characters and animals and this air of fakery and artificiality permeates every second of the movie.

Failing to walk the tightrope between drama and comedy and so devoid of anything resembling realism, 'The Greatest Showman' is a sorely underwhelming use of 2 hours that attempts to say something about perseverance, discrimination and tolerance but is so poe-faced about its messages that it has has little to no resonance or lasting effect whatsoever. It's ugly to look at and even worse to listen to and if I had seen the film last year, there is no doubt that it would have made my bottom 10 films of 2017. Towards the finale of the movie, a pompous theatre critic reluctantly labels Barnum's circus "a celebration of humanity". Conversely, I'd label 'The Greatest Showman' an exercise in mundanity.