Someone who was a conman and an exploiter is presented as this saintly pioneer of diversity

Rating: 5/10 (9 January 2018)

It was an enjoyable experience, but they would have been much better off if the character "loosely based on P. T. Barnum" wasn't named P. T. Barnum. It isn't so much that factually maybe just 10% of it is true, it's that someone who was a conman and an exploiter is presented as this saintly pioneer of diversity. If they didn't insist on tethering the film to real people, it would have looked much more like an entertainment and less like a con. Take Jenny Lindt story. She is presented as an opera singer, which she was in real life, but then she goes on stage and sings what is essentially a show tune. She is there for the sole purpose of demonstrating Barnum's quest for class. Once that's achieved, more or less, they give her a completely ridiculous out. And it happens again and again. Just as I'd get into the mood with a musical number, which are all great, some real life related blunder would throw me off. And the other way around - there would be a nice genuine scene, I even cried once, and an out of place musical number would ruin everything. Circus freaks crashing a high society events? Interracial kiss? On stage? To applause? In mid 19th century? It's hard not to notice that kids don't grow up even though clearly years pass. And some of the adults look way older than plausible from the get go. Hugh Jackman is a great actor and truly a great showman, and it pains me to say this, but when there is Barnum as a young teen and in the next scene he becomes Jackman, coming to take his young wife from her parents' home, I cringed. And it took a while to get over that.