The Greatest Showman

Last weekend, we gathered in the Fortress of Ineptitude to watch The Greatest Showman.  When The Greatest Showman came out last year, my daughter Randie really wanted to see it. 

I really did not.

The story of The Greatest Showman is based on the early life of P. T. Barnum, the “Barnum” in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Barnum made his mark as a purveyor of odd and unusual entertainment and exhibits: little people, tattooed men, bearded ladies, that sort of thing. Barnum took advantage of the misfortunes of others to promote himself and by all accounts, he did not treat those persons in his employ well. 

The Greatest Showman was a whitewash of Barnum’s exploitation and quite frankly, I did not want to see a musical about that. 

Randie heard songs and saw clips online and thought it sounded and looked awesome and on that basis, not on the record of history, wanted to see The Greatest Showman.

Anyway, we had a free HBO weekend; on their bill for that weekend was The Greatest Showman.  So I DVR’d it and we finally watched the damn thing.

Well, the songs are great.

The performances of the songs are great.

The choreography of the performances of the songs is great.

The parts of the movie where music is happening are almost magical.

Too bad it’s all not in service to a stronger story. 

The Greatest Showman starts off with a young Barnum, poor urchin who is summarily orphaned and lives a hard life on the streets.

Barnum is smitten with a young lady named Charity who is part of a wealthy, high society family. Barnum goes off to help build a railroad and when he comes back to New York, he’s got a few dollars in his pockets and looks like Hugh Jackman. He asks to marry Charity who has grown up to look like Michelle Williams. They get married, have a couple of daughters and live in a tenement. Charity may be cut off from the wealth and privilege of upper class society but she loves her man and loves her kids and even though they’re poor, they are also very attractive people. Charity thinks life is good.

P. T. Barnum wants more. 

Out of work, Barnum cons his way into getting a bank loan using the deeds he “borrowed” from his previous job to several merchant ships. The ships are real; they are also at the bottom of the South China Sea which is a problem for another day. 

In the meantime, Barnum opens a museum filled with wax figures of the gruesome and the macabre.

Ticket sales are tepid at best.

One of the daughters suggests adding something living to the museum.  So Barnum gets an idea.

Over the course of the movie so far, Barnum has had chance encounters with some people who look different, a dwarf, a woman with a beard. He decides to seek out these people and others like them to be part of his show.

If they’re already being mocked, abused and laughed at, they may as well be paid for it. 

Barnum and his gang of freaks put on a show with acrobatics, exotic animals and broad comedy. One theater reviewer decries the show as a “circus”.

In response, Barnum changes the name of the show to Barnum’s Circus!

Ticket sales take off and Barnum is a success. 

The freaks in his employ? I guess they’re doing OK. The Greatest Showman  does not offer a lot in terms of what’s going on with those guys. Well, the movie is not called The Greatest Showman And His Uncanny Family Of Freaks. 

No, the focus stays on the titular showman. For Barnum, success is not enough. He’s outselling every venue in the city but the reviews in the papers continue to diminish his success. The wealthy upper class echelons of New York high society regard Barnum with disdain and contempt, a common huckster interloper in their midst.  

P. T. Barnum wants respect.

So he chats up Robert Carlyle played by Zac Efron. 

(I was sitting on the sofa watching this movie and wondering, “Do I know this guy?” I pulled out my phone to do a quick Wiki on the cast of The Greatest Showman. Hey, that’s Troy Bolton from High School Musical!)  

Carlyle has the opposite problem of Barnum: he’s putting on plays that the critics love but are hardly pulling big bucks at the box office. Barnum figures with his showmanship and Carlyle’s upper crust connections, they might have something going on here. After a lot of drinks, songs and choreography, Carlyle signs on for 10% of the box office. 

Carlyle scores Barnum’s troupe a most impressive gig: a trip to London to meet Queen Victoria. Seems her majesty has heard of this odd little show in America and would like to see what all the fuss is about.

While in London, Barnum meets Jenny Lind, a classical singer from Sweden who has taken Europe by storm. Before he hears her even sing one note, Barnum moves in for the hustle, sweet talking Miss Lind into crossing the pond and wowing America!

Barnum sees Jenny Lind as his ticket to respectability.

She is also the beginning of his downfall. 

Obsessed with getting Miss Lind in front of the American public, Barnum turns his attentions away from his wife, his children and his performing freaks at the circus. He shuts his troupe out of an upscale meet ‘n’ greet when Lind comes to America.

The troupe, being shunned by Barnum, launch into a defiant anthem of “This Is Me” which is the big kick ass show stopping performance of the movie.

Barnum’s dismissive attitude towards the people who brought him this far isn’t the troupe’s only problem.  There is a continual presence of protestors outside the circus, raging against the presence of freaks in their neighborhood. 

Zendaya as Anne 

All of this is a bit much for Troy Bolton… I mean, Carlyle to handle. And in the meantime, he is just freaking head over heels in freaking love with Anne, a beautiful acrobat whose brown skin next to the very white Carlyle leads to some considerable racism and angst. 

Meanwhile, Barnum is following Jenny Lind across America, dazzled  by the reflecting glow of her talent, beauty and respectability. 

Jenny in turn seems dazzled by P. T. Barnum because he's frickin' Hugh Jackman. She makes a move on Barnum who remembers, "Wait! I have a wife and kids!" And he rushes back to New York just in time to find Barnum's Circus is on fire.

Seems the protesters escalated their hate game and well, things get real bad real quick. Troy Bolton...I mean, Carflyle gets trapped in the fire but Wolverine...excuse me, Barnum saves him just in time. 

Oh, while Barnum was out of town, the bank foreclosed on his house. Charity and the kids are moving out. 

And Jenny, upset that Barnum wouldn't take a tumble in the hay with her has quit the tour so there's no money from that anymore. 

P. T. Barnum has lost everything. 

But the gang of freaks and outcasts aren't giving up on him because they are a family now and...

Wait! When did that happen? When did this collection of oddball loners decide that this was a family? 

I mean, good for them but when did that happen? 

Thankfully, Carlyle manages his money better than Barnum and has put aside enough of his 10 percent to help launch the show again. 

But they don't have enough for a building but who needs a building when you can pitch a big ass tent on the edge of town by the docks. 

And thus the show goes on.

OK, I'll give The Greatest Showman this much. It's pretty to look at, the music is wonderful and there are some amazing sequences such as the "This Is Me" anthem and the romantic as all get out scene with Anne and Carlyle in the ring and on the trapeze. 

But as a coherent and engaging story, The Greatest Showman is lacking to me. When I was snarking off about how Barnum's circus freaks are suddenly thinking of themselves as a family, the moment does not feel earned because the story of them getting to that point is not told.  Other than "This Is Me", we get little of their collective spirit and resolve and the story of their coming together is a story I would rather see.  

Click here for the This Is Me clip on You Tube.