The OK Showman

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2018)

The Greatest Showman tells a musical, highly fictionalized account of P.T. Barnum's rags-to-riches story of starting his world famous circus, with the help of some friends, colleagues, and even enemies.
Let's put aside the fact that it's a historical fiction and a musical, and assume that you know what you're getting into: a musical and a historical fiction film. I will not be critiquing the film based on any of those standards. However, the film is still lacking in several areas that impact this film.
The music lacks heart. But this may not be an issue for you! For me, it is. The numbers in this film tend to follow soulful pop conventions, transcending the time period in which the film takes place and sounding more like a mid-2000s musical. You'll leave the theater with plenty of melodies in your head, as nearly every song is engineered to be an earworm. And that's the problem I have with it, the fact that I just used the word "engineered." Music in film, like music in life, is supposed to accentuate and interpret the moments we experience in life. With a musical, they're meant to convey the emotions and atmosphere of particular scenes. But you can't just write a song and expect to automatically have emotion in it! And that's exactly where the music of The Greatest Showman falls short. The entire film feels like one really long song divided and spread out into multiple parts for the film. It's as if the songwriters factory produced melodies and prioritized song memorability over emotional impact for the audience. On the surface, the music is memorable, but there is no emotional depth to these songs.
OK, so why is there no emotional depth to these songs in the first place? Underdeveloped characters and a lack of real conflict. The film manages to get interesting in establishing an ensemble of unique characters that P.T. Barnum meets. But the film ends up using what little time it has (1 hr 40 min to be exact) to focus on P.T. Barnum. This would be fine; after all, he IS the main man of the show. But how does this affect our reaction when the film decides it wants us to sympathize with these side characters (which it does)? The side characters lack the exploration the audience needs to connect with them. Not to mention, there's no REAL conflict in this film! Right when I think the film is about to get interesting because an unexpected yet completely formulaic conflict comes up, it gets resolved before you can even grasp all the details of the said conflict. Just like that? That was easy. In my mind I still think there are many issues the film never addressed in the storyline that would have been excellent and even provocative sources of conflict.
So, ultimately, The Greatest Showman is a half-hearted mess. It's good for something to put on in the background when you have family friends over for your annual get together, but don't expect to be swayed by the music, performances, or storyline, because the film really lacks the potential in all of those areas. It has everything you need in the musical formula minus the energy and heart.