Some good parts but the script needed more polishing

Rating: 5/10 (2 January 2018)

Lots of people obviously enjoyed this movie and good for them. I found it okay but didn't really rate it as highly.
There were a few individual fun and well choreographed musical numbers, but I think I just came away thinking that it was more like a stage musical which someone decided to film instead of a film with singing.
Other than that there were just lots of little things which I found annoying because they seemed meaningless or weren't clearly explained.
Several characters had radical changes of attitude and confidence which weren't really explained. eg. Lettie Lutz and Tom Thumb were introduced as extremely nervous in society, but at some point suddenly became confident and angry with no explanation beyond maybe a song where they'd sing something like (paraphrased) "I've changed my mind", just... because. Most of the rest of the ensemble barely existed beyond shallow individual characters who'd repeatedly end up being background dancers. They usually went everywhere in a bunch, and usually in the same formation. They never even change out of their performing costumes, even when crossing the sea to meet Queen Victoria!
The narrative repeatedly had Barnum being criticised for championing fake things and cheating audiences (which apparently is more like the real-life reputation) but the film didn't really show him doing this... unless compiling people who were genuinely unique into a circus performance is somehow lying.
The movie rationalises Barnum's hiring of Carlyle for his expertise in appealing to the rich classes of society, but actual attempts to do this, nor their consequences, are ever addressed in the story. There's a cameo trip to see the Queen, which is immediately forgotten and with no consequences explained. (In real life, this trip.. which was actually only with Tom Thumb rather than the whole ensemble... resulted in lots of positive attention, zero of which is given any time in the film, so why bother even including it at all?)
Jenny Lind -- portrayed as the greatest European opera singer -- made a thing in the movie of having risen from the lower classes, but this declaration never actually amounted to anything in the story. It was meaningless information that seemed more of a distraction. She also only sang one song in the film... several times.... and instead of opera it was more like a Mariah Carey song with hints of auto-tune effects.
And so on.
I didn't come away hating the film, but if the above sort of stuff might annoy you then I'd not recommend it. Maybe I've been spoiled for film musicals by some of the wonderfully animated musicals for children, often with compelling narratives, scripts that make sense and songs that weave nicely into the story. I don't see why a musical film made for adults, and not animated, can't have a similar kind of fluid composition. It shouldn't need to look like it's done for a stage just because people are singing in it.