big broad Broadway

Rating: 7/10 (8 March 2018)

Charity Hallett (Michelle Williams) and P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) are childhood sweethearts and loving parents to two girls. As a child, his father worked as a lowly tailor for her wealthy family. After his father's death, he struggled to survive on the streets of New York. When they reached adulthood, Charity leaves the comforts of her family home for his love. He lies to a banker for the money to buy a wax museum. Eventually, he turns it into a circus of oddities. He recruits successful black sheep playwright Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) who falls in love with trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya). He is desperate for high society approval and promotes high class singing sensation Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson).
This is a brash and broadest of Broadway musical. It is big and melodramatic. Obviously, Hugh is the perfect man for the job. This is a movie that knows what it is and is happy to play it to the fullest. Coming into this, my biggest fear is an easy lackadaisical treatment of historical facts. How big and broad this is actually helps to alleviating that fear. Nobody will mistake this for a documentary. It is to be taken as the lightest of entertainment with the broadest of emotions. I would have liked a reference to "There's a sucker born every minute" even if it's not from P.T.'s mouth. Maybe I missed that in the movie. I like all the actors especially Jackman. It hits some great notes. I especially like the trapeze dance between Anne and Phillip. Mostly, I'm disappointed with the wooden acting from Ferguson. The most compelling part of her role is the on stage singing. I wonder if an actual singer would be infinitely more fitting. I simply don't believe her singing and the role doesn't ask much in terms of acting. Overall, it's a big musical and it doesn't want to be anything else.