The Greatest Showman

Director: Michael Gracey

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson

Genre: Musical

Year: 2018

'The Greatest Showman' follows Phineas Barnum's strenuous task of creating and sustaining a world-changing entertainment, a circus of oddities which shook his audience and critics.

Hugh Jackman acts Phineas T. Barnum, a recently redundant worker who creates the world's first circus - a collection of 'curiosities' who congregate to put on a performance for the public, with the intention to bring joy. However, it is dismissed by critics and infuriates citizens, yet Barnum persists with his vision with the support of Philip Carlyle, his business assistant.

Being a musical, it is flawless in such terms, having exceptional songs and brilliantly choreographed performances, in which all the cast seem to exert plenty of energy into (despite the fact quite a bit is blatant CGI). The music is hypnotising, with memorable, catchy and dazzling tunes that will likely possess you after watching the film. Indeed, it is excellent when it comes to its musical ability, no surprise coming from the lyricists of 'La La Land', and it has no shortage of brilliant songs. From the beginning, it captivates audiences with its first song (and coincidentally, its last), that being 'The Greatest Show', and the majority of other songs are equally impressive and are executed marvellously.
Similarly, the acting is very good, with Jackman leading the rest like the ringleader he is. His performance shines throughout the film and is easily the best of all the cast. That being said, Zac Efron, returning to musicals from his disappointing line of poor comedies, is also great. Zendaya, Michelle Williams and Rebecca Ferguson all perform excellently and all portray their characters well.

However, this film is unfortunately flawed in many ways. Despite its great writing, the film feels extremely rushed, brushing past dilemmas with little development and is quick to solve them, only to repeat with another situation. This prevents the film from accessing any deep emotion throughout and makes a lot of the emotional value only feel one dimensional. The one exception to this is the relationship formed between Efron's Carlyle and Zendaya's Anne, which is well paced, structured and executed, packing the emotional punch the rest of the film seems to lack. The context of their relationship is well addressed, Zendaya having dual heritage and their relationship would have been greatly controversial in the Victorian era. This helps in evoking the relevant themes of diversity, and the world's discrimination of people's differences.
Nevertheless, the rest of the emotion within the film is never truly realised, which, with the potential the film has, is irritating and disappointing. There is no absence of emotion, it is introduced but never reaches what it is fully capable of reaching.

A lot of the characters feel somewhat underdeveloped too - most of the circus folk don't feel as fleshed out as they could be, even the key ones. They are unique characters but for the most part they have little personality, with the exception of the defiant Bearded Lady and Anne. Added to that, Williams' talent feels underused and simply a motive for the plot to proceed in the necessary ways.

Ultimately, 'The Greatest Showman' is brilliant from a musical standpoint, but lacks immensely from a narrative perspective. The acting is excellent, but sometimes the sequences do feel overly CGI-d which might be expected due to the complex routines, but the cast do appear to exert as much energy where possible into it anyway. The pacing of the film is far too rushed and the emotion is never developed to its fullest potential. Nevertheless, it has great entertainment value and such addictive music that most criticism can be ignored for the most part.

Verdict: 7/10