Review of The Greatest Showman (2017) by Ines M — 17 Jun 2018

The Pretty Great Showman.

The songs in Michael Gracey's The Greatest Showman are engaging and fantastic. More than once, I wanted to stand up and clap, and sing, and dance along with the actors on screen. However, more than half of the movie left me confused. To begin, the audience is thrown into a sequence of scenes from Barnum's (Hugh Jackman) life. All these different scenes come too quickly, one after the other without a space to breathe. One minute, Barnum is the patriarch of a family, the next minute he is a young boy; and the minute right after he is already an adult. There weren't any details about these different stages of Barnum's life or about the people around him. These quick changes were confusing. Even though these quick changes of scenes were confusing, the movie still has good scenes. One of the best scenes of the movie occurs in a pub with Barnum trying to convince Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) to join the show. All the moves and props of this scene certainly captivate the public's attention. It provoked in the viewers the sensation of jumping right into the film and cheering with the characters when everything became right. Another scene that captivate people's attention is the romantic moment between Phillip Carlyle and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya). The movements of the camera accompanying the trapezist's number and Mr. Carlyle trying to conquer Anne's attention will warm people's hearts. Nevertheless, I would have liked to know more about this character that Carlyle falls in love with. The Greatest Showman has good scenes but the lack of details for each character and the quick changes between scenes make the movie not as great as the viewers think.