Simply put - it's wonderfully entertaining

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2018)

I'm not a fan of musicals but I went along to see this with my partner and it was wonderful. I was foot tapping at the first song and didn't look back. The songs are great, the set pieces amazing, the characters engaging and the story simple and involving. After seeing the film, I bought the soundtrack and am off to see the sing-a-long version at the weekend.
I find how it has played out with critics sneering at it but audiences loving it, a really interesting and revealing indicator of our current lives. Barnum delivered crowd pleasing entertainment but the elites looked at him with contempt and this is no different.
And hence I read so many critics who just can't get that people like to be entertained when they go to the cinema and don't always have to be educated, lectured to or instructed about how they should be feeling.
We don't need to see a 100% accurate portrayal of a historical figure judged by today's standards, we don't have to see films that need to bang us over the head with a message that needs us to get riled up rather than uplifted and not every film has to be an exercise in virtue signalling that we can brag about to our equally empathetic and 'enlightened' friends.
Sometimes we just want to cut loose and enjoy ourselves, sometimes we just want to leave the politics and wailing at the door and simply revel in spectacle and entertainment. That is what The Greatest Showman offers and that is what so many detached critics are failing to see.