JANUARY 3, 2018
In 2004, I had the enormous pleasure of seeing Hugh Jackman live on stage, giving it his all on Broadway in the musical “The Boy from Oz.” Watching the ease with which Jackman owned the stage made me wish that someday he would star in an honest-to-goodness movie musical comedy.
I had to wait 13 years, but at last we have Jackman in an original movie musical, and all I can say is “Be careful what you wish for.”
Yes, I know that Jackman earned an Oscar nomination for “Les Miserables,” but, as good as he was, that dour musical hardly showed off Jackman’s acclaimed song-and-dance side. So it’s only appropriate that his first original musical is called “The Greatest Showman,” which focuses on the life of circus impresario P.T. Barnum. An original Barnum musical has always been a dream project for Jackman, so to keep their “Wolverine” star happy, 20th Century-Fox ponied up $84 million to make the actor’s dream come true.
Pity.
Barnum, who was notorious for observing that “there’s a sucker born every minute,” achieved fame by hoodwinking the American public, which, by and large, loved being fleeced by Barnum. The script by Jenny Bicks and Oscar-winner Bill Condon takes that same sunny view of Barnum’s career, which began by his leaving a desk job to open a museum featuring wax models of various subjects, a notion to which the public responded with a collective yawn. But when his daughters suggested adding living curiosities to the museum, the idea became a sensation.
By “living curiosities,” Barnum sought out people with either physical abnormalities or possessing remarkable talents, people who are sometimes labeled “freaks.” Here’s where history and “The Greatest Showman” begin to diverge. The film depicts Barnum as a liberator in a way, giving his stars the opportunity to move out of the shadows and show the world their talent. In reality, many historians argue, Barnum exploited his “freaks” and lined his own pockets from the profits from his curious crowds. (Not to mention how much money Barnum made on his blackface minstrel shows.)
However, a “warts-and-all” biography of Barnum would not be within the boundaries of a PG-rated family musical, so Bicks and Condon have grafted a “penniless boy fights his way to the top” kind of storyline onto the events of Barnum’s life, with the less reputable parts removed. The Barnum of “The Greatest Showman” is not always a paragon of virtue — he is seduced by “the Swedish songbird,” opera singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), and in his effort to be accepted by high society, he literally shuts the door on his circus cast. Still, Jackman’s natural charm shines through even when Barnum’s character is called into question, so he’s never really a bad guy.
Michael Gracey, the director of “The Greatest Showman,” has primarily been a director of commercials and music videos, and it shows. The film is so slick you can practically skate on it. This is particularly true of the staging of the film’s big production numbers, which are supposed to be inspirational but most just feature a lot of foot stomping. Much better are the smaller musical numbers, particularly a romantic ballad on a trapeze between circus producer Philip Carlyle (Zac Efron) and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), a black trapeze artist whose relationship with Carlyle threatens to become a scandal, as well as “The Other Side,” in which Carlyle is seduced by Barnum into joining up with his circus, a delightful number which has a subliminal sexual vibe, rare for a PG-rated film..
Despite the lack of material, Jackman brings his Broadway pizzazz to Barnum, although as his wife Charity, Michelle Williams is uncharacteristically forgettable. Efron reminds us once again what he is capable of doing in a musical, and among the circus cast, Tony nominee Keala Settle as the show’s Bearded Lady has the film’s big moment as the circus cast reassert themselves in “This Is Me,” an anthem that will likely make it to the Oscars as a Best Song nominee.
In fact, the songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who this year both won a Best Song Oscar (“City of Stars” from “La La Land”) and a Tony Award for their score to “Dear Evan Hansen” have come up with ten more catchy earworms to get into your head. Like Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge!”, the songs here are not set in the period of the film but are more contemporary pop. There’s no masterwork among them, but they’re consistently…not bad, raising hopes that the film could rise to their level.
Unfortunately, it’s never a good sign when, as you’re finally settling into a movie, the direction indicates that it is just about done. As the credits began to roll, I asked myself “That’s it???” It’s strange that I wanted something more, considering that I didn’t like what I had seen so far, but “The Greatest Showman” is so determined to have a “happily-ever-after” ending that it fails to deal with the complicated issues it raises. “The Greatest Showman” is a film of dashed hopes…not for its characters but for its audience.
GRADE: C+
