Should never have had biography as a description

Rating: 6/10 (15 April 2019)

This movie was entertaining and reminded me of the circus. The dancing, the animals, the costumes and of course Hugh Jackman singing his heart out. Unfortunately him singing his heart out isn't on good songs. There are some positive lyrics, but overall the music doesn't even remotely fit with the movie if they're going to call it a biography. How it could be called a biography amazes me. Using a couple historical figures doesn't mean biography. On top of that I don't think they could make an historically accurate movie about P.T. Barnum in these pc over charged days anyway.

Other than the entirely false misrepresentation of how P.T. Barnum became P.T. Barnum.

The other biggest lie is Jenny Lind. Why they would want to tarnish the name of an actual iconic historical figure who was a champion of charity is beyond me. She donated the equivalent of millions to charity in part because of the tour with P.T. Barnum. She never broke contract, leaving of her own accord due to her uncomfortableness with his aggressive promotional techniques. She didn't bring financial ruin to him, he did that several bad investments. But most importantly, she neither loved nor had any romantic feelings for him, never causing the photo that nearly ruined his marriage. She was a hero for charities, basically funding public schooling in Sweden amongst other things and they cheapen her while making him seem even more heroic. All for the sake of a story. Don't use her name then if you're going to fabricate everything else.

What this movie should have strove for is not what it tried for. It should have just stuck with a fun movie based on circus life circa now. But wait that's all gone now. So now we just have a sub par circus "biography."