Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I think there’s a tradition going on that around Christmas time there’s a musical movie spectacular that leads into the New Year. This was the case with ‘Les Misérables’ and certainly the case with ‘La La Land’. So it’s fair that ‘The Greatest Showman’ is the latest musical film spectacular at the cinema.
‘The Greatest Showman’ is based on the true story of P. T. Barnum who created the Barnum & Bailey Circus and its most unusual star attractions. The film stars Hugh Jackman as P. T. Barnum with Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya. How do I rate this latest film spectacular?
I found it good. I enjoyed watching this at the cinema very much. It certainly moved at a fast pace and I was able to pay attention all the way through. But I don’t think this is the musical masterpiece it was deemed to be. Don’t get me wrong, the story’s great as well as the characters and the music.
The issue I have with ‘The Greatest Showman’ is that the music and songs don’t reflect the period this movie is set in. Throughout the film, I felt the songs were rather modern and the music accompanying it wouldn’t have reflected the musical instruments that were played from that period.
The songs themselves were easy enough to enjoy and I found some outstanding ones including ‘A Million Dreams’, ‘This is Me’ and ‘Rewrite the Stars’. I would have been okay with these songs had they been played with the music from around the 19th century and not feel out of place with them.
Hugh Jackson (well-known as Wolverine from the ‘X-Men’ film series) is great as P. T. Barnum. I enjoyed how Barnum’s journey develops in the movie with him creating a future for his family as well as being sucked in by fame and fortune. I did wonder where the movie was going to go for him.
Zac Efron (from the ‘High School Musical’ films) stars as Phillip Carlyle, a playwright who becomes Barnum’s partner in the circus business. Michelle Williams (who I’ve seen in ‘Oz, The Great and Powerful’) stars as Charity, P.T. Barnum’s wife, who supports her husband during the circus business.
Rebecca Ferguson (from ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’) stars as Jenny Lind, a famous Swedish singer, who’s singing voice gets dubbed by Loren Allred. And Zendaya (from ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’) stars as Anne Wheeler, the trapeze artist that Zac Efron’s character falls in love with.
The film does feature themes of prejudice concerning the circus performers who get ridiculed by local harassers because of their uniqueness. I found this film thought-provoking when I reflected on how times have changed since then and it was interesting how this movie depicts Barnum’s success.
‘The Greatest Showman’ is a pretty good musical film. I wouldn’t say it was a masterpiece, as the songs and music don’t reflect the period that it’s set in. But I enjoyed the cast and liked how the story moved at a fast pace. I was surprised by how the film went so quickly when it came to the end.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
Bradley's Basement 