Looked spectacular but the music was annoying!

Rating: 5/10 (14 May 2018)

Review:
Just like the remake of the Great Gatsby, the music in this movie really doesn't suit the time period, which is set during the late 1800's but they are catchy tunes. Personally the music did get on my nerves after a while, because I just wanted them to get on with the story but it is a musical so I should have known what I was getting myself into. Anyway at the beginning of the movie, you see a young, penniless Phineas Taylor Barnum (Hugh Jackman), who has a wild imagination and sadly loses his father at an early age. Whilst living with is foster parents, he falls in love with his childhood sweetheart, even though her father thinks that he is not right for her but after writing many letters to each other, they end up getting married. At an older age, he ends up in a dead end job, and when he gets laid off, he decides to open a wax museum to make ends meet. Due to bad ticket sales from the museum, he changes the attraction to a circus, with "never seen before" live acts, full of a collection of oddities and music. After a while, Barnum gambles everything on a opera singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), which takes him away from the family home and puts a strain on his family life. Jenny expects more from there relationship, which Barnum declines and soon realises that he misses his family. On Jenny's last performance, she is pictured giving Barnum a kiss, which gets in the papers and makes his wife Charity (Michelle Williams) leave him, even though it was an innocent kiss. Meanwhile, his circus gets burnt down by the locals who think that it's a travelling freak show, so his partner, Phillip Carlyle agrees to help him to build the circus again, even though they don't have any money. Barnum then concentrates on sorting out his family life, and once that's back on track, he gathers the troops and they put on the best performance of there lives. It's quite a touching story which does have some emotional moments but I really couldn't take the singing. The costumes and the cinematography did make it unique and pretty spectacular but there wasn't much depth to the various characters, who all had strange oddities. I appreciate the amount of work that went into making the final product, and the fact that it had taken nearly 10 years to make but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm sure there are many people who will disagree with my point of view, especially after seeing the amount of money that it made at the box office but I've never been a big lover of musicals, so let's just put it down to personal choice. Average!
Round-Up:
This is the first movie directed by Michael Gracey but he has made music videos for Natasha Bedingfield, the Sugababes and Will Young. For his first movie, he really took on a big task, and judging by the reviews, he certainly done a good job. With movies like The Muppet Man, Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Naruto in development, I'm sure that people will be anxious to see what he will be coming up with next but I personally doubt that he will smash the box office like he did with this movie. Although this wasn't my type of film, all of the actors put in a top performance, especially as most of them sung the numbers themselves. I can't see them making a sequel but I'm sure this film will be remembered for some time, especially as the soundtrack has become a best seller.
Budget: $84million
Worldwide Gross: $431million
Genre: Biography, Drama, Musical
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Keala Settle, Eric Anderson, Will Swenson, Paul Sparks, Austyn Johnson and Cameron Seely. 5/10