The greatest songs ... In a too rushed story

Rating: 7/10 (9 March 2020)

"The Greatest Showman" is a 2017 musical drama directed by Michael Gracey starring Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams. I happened to have another movie date and I again let the lady choose what to watch and she brought one of the few films she owns herself. So we gave this musical flick a watch together. It was actually one of those films I was stoked to check out as I heard many positive thing about it, but was also hesitant to give it a spin as some even labelled it as a disaster. In my opinion, it's both in some way. One of the most confusing aspects is the absolutely fast pace that really could have been way more slowly. I mean, the relationship between Barnum and his wife is rushed in the blink of an eye, literally during one song and didn't even stop once to allow the characters to create some sort of chemistry. It's one of the problems I expected when I noticed the runtime of only 109 minutes and it really shows how a duration of more than two hours would have been more of an advantage. Also, the specific character development of Jackman's Barnum is well played, but criminally terrible in terms of character traits. He went from a dreamer with a vision and the will to prove the world that talent doesn't come from how much money you have to an arrogant snob who only defines his personality with how wealthy he is and only cares about the opinion of the aristocratic people within a few minutes. Even when he turns it around again in the end, it's a shame to see it develop like this. Hence, the focus doesn't really lie on him and for a protagonists I expected to be the appealing figure this was more than a simple let down. Furthermore, the film's obvious core message is that human beings can achieve anything if they wanted to and that everyone is perfect just the way they are. It's about individualism, hopes and dreams and a call for outcasts and loners to be themselves. It's clear, isn't it? Then why does the protagonist betray those values and why does it spend so much time to (I hope!) unwillingly ridicule and laugh at the outcast characters. Of course, it's done to make them more sympathic and inspire them to sing a wonderful song about it (plot convenience, I assume), but the amount of time it spends to laugh about them prevails and I think it's pretty sad that it contradicts it's try of an uplifting philosophy. It made me feel uncomfortable at times and originally intended the total opposite. Aside from this though, it also has something great to offer as well. For instance, the modern camera work enables the viewer to not just experience the tension, but to even feel it as if the circus was in the living room. The dance choreography goes hand it hand with the singing decently and creates some moments of extreme pleasure. It's full of satisfying colours and numbers and contains only outstanding songs. From "A Million Dreams" to "This Is Me" they are all beautifully arranged and stuck in my head for a very long time. Next to this, it's notable that all the actors and actresses proved some impressive singing talent that made it even more enjoyable to me as a musician. All in all, it's beauty in a mess and even though the characters are mostly too shallow it has something charming to it. Beneath the horribly executed and double sided moral it follows it's a decent fun nevertheless. It really makes "style over substance" work by covering it's flaws with pompousness and frantic camera angles and even though it might not go down in history as an ingenious piece of film, it surely will for its memorable songs and musicality. Despite it's execution, it's somehow still inspiring and a fun watch for in between.