'Greatest' is an overstatement, but still certainly enjoyable despite it's inaccuracies

Rating: 7/10 (7 January 2018)

Movie musicals have been making a resurgence in recent years, and it seems we have to people to either thank or blame, depending on your opinion on the genre.Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are an American songwriting duo, and have been making quite the name for themselves in recent years. The first brush I have had with the pair was with the Broadway hit 'Dear Evan Hansen', which went on to sweep the Tony awards last year. Following this was their success on the silver screen with the Oscar-winning 'La La Land'. This success showed there was a real audience for modern movie musicals, and it seems they sought to capitalise on this realisation.
The film actually struggled to come to be, with studios nervous about producing a big budget movie musical. Following La La Land, of course, confidence was found with an almost guaranteed promise of a large paycheck. Having been first announced in 2009, it's good to see the film finally see the light.
How much you'll enjoy this film will almost certainly revolve around how much you know about the character. It's important to note that there is many inaccuracies and oddities littered throughout, both relating to P.T. Barnum as a person, and to the time period in general. I shan't go into all of the specifics, but here are a couple of outlines of things conveniently missing: Joice Heth (a literal slave whom Barnum passed off as the 161 year old nursemaid to George Washington) and child labour (both 'The bearded woman' and 'General Tom Thumb' were brought on as attractions when they were children). Finally, it's debatable whether or not the climax of the film even happened. Barnum's museum did burn down, however this was before he'd even gotten into the circus business at all. Rather clearly, many liberties were taken.
Michael Gracey managed to put incredible things onto the screen with this film, and I was genuinely amazed at moments. If I were to score it based on the cinematography and choreography alone, it'd have a comfortable 9/10. Almost every song has fantastic action accompanying it, whether it be elaborate dance members featuring the majority of the cast, or intimate performances between two characters. The CGI, however, was lacking, presumably due to the lower budget compared to the CGI extravaganzas i'm used to. It's also used sparingly, so I can forgive it.
Speaking of the characters, I was pleasantly surprised by the performances in this film. Besides the child actors who I felt were lacking (I rarely enjoy child actors, so this may be an issue of my own) I feel everyone was at least passable. Some, however, surpassed my expectations. Zendaya, whom I had yet to enjoyed in a film, particularly after Spider-Man: Homecoming, was incredible. After seeing her here, I'm actually rethinking my thoughts of her in Spider-Man. I believe the fault lied with her character itself, rather than her performance. I, personally, almost never feel any real emotion in the cinema. I can find a scene sad, but i'll rarely cry. Despite the actual scene being rather unremarkable, Zendaya's performance was incredibly believable, to a point where I almost found myself crying. Hugh Jackman, unsurprisingly, was also fantastic and I even found myself enjoying Zac Effron's character, and not just as a novelty.
One character I found myself bewildered by was Jenny Lind. While I have only read about the real life person briefly, she seems to be a genuinely kindhearted and incredibly talented person. In this film, she's debatably neither. Given the fact she is an opera singer, I expected her song to be.. opera. It wasn't. Instead, it was a belted pop ballad, which I wouldn't be against were it not meant to be sung by one of the greatest opera singers of the 19th Century. As one of the few characters whose real-life counterpart actually sung, I was also surprised to find her vocal type was different. She was entitled the 'Swedish Nightingale' due to her gorgeous Soprano singing, while in this film, she belts in what I believe is an Alto's range. Additionally, within the film she quits the tour out of what seems like a jealous tantrum. In reality, while she did split from Barnum's employment, she finished the tour. As mentioned in the film, she gave much of her money to charities. Ending the tour wouldn't simply affect her. She instead finished it alone.
As this is a musical, I have another element I get to discuss, one which I might usually miss: The music! I felt it was a mixed bag. All of the songs are enjoyable, but I found many of the group performances to blend together, becoming hard to distinguish from one another. Also, I personally wasn't a fan of how almost all of the songs were Pop, in one way or another. I appreciate it appeals to the largest audience, but I'd have rather seen some risks taken with the genres. In much of the songs, the music can almost drown out the singers. I feel the strongest songs are the quietest.
Also, while I don't know how much the actors knew beforehand, the skills shown are fantastic. I've no idea if all the cast could dance before, but it was clear effort was put in to pull off the moves and what appeared to be demanding choreography. Zac Effron and Zendaya both even learned how use a trapeze!
Finally, though I rarely mention it, the costumes within this film were genuinely brilliant. I've no idea how accurate they were, but they certainly looked the part to me.
If you wish to learn about P.T. Barnum, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. He's a fascinating character, and in this case, truth is almost stranger than fiction. Taking historical accuracy and the like into consideration, the film is most likely a 4/10. Despite this, however, I don't feel I can give it such a low score. I legitimately enjoyed myself watching this film, and though it had it's many flaws, I feel it deserves better. If you can watch this as it's own, standalone story, without the baggage that reality brings with it, I feel 7/10 is a perfectly fair score, and it's the one I'll be using officially. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys movie musicals, and even to regular film lovers who enjoy dazzling cinematography.