A spectacle destined to become a timeless classic that you'll watch over and again!

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2018)

Little did I know that when I told the missus that we had a "Great Escape" movie pass we needed to use before the end of January, and to pick something she wanted to see, that we would be sitting down in a nearly empty theatre, waiting for what would soon become one of the best movies we've seen in several years.
From the opening title cards, then BOOM straight into a glorious musical number that sets the stage for the rollercoaster ride of spectacular visuals, incredible music and a sweeping range of emotion.
The decision to make the soundtrack a collection of contemporary-styled songs works perfectly against the Victorian-era backgroup of P.T. Barnum's journey. Every song is exceptionally well-written and married perfectly to its scene.
The ensemble cast supporting Hugh Jackman are all talented performers, delivering great vocals and touching spoken scenes. Excellent choreography highlights the power of the vocals, without distracting from them. The writers even managed to work in a little social commentary without being ridiculously heavy-handed about it.
Visually, it is a riot of color, interspersed with bleak vignettes of grays and black, with incredible cinematic impact. If there was greenscreen/mocap/CGI, it was perfectly blended in.
We left the theatre wrung out, but enthralled with this film. I immediately bought and downloaded the soundtrack, and I've pre-ordered the Blu-Ray. If they release an extended edition, I'll order that, too.
This is a movie that will see regular rotation on my home media server, along with other great movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Newsies, Frozen, Unforgiven, The Godfather and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. One of those movies that even when you own it on tape/DVD/BluRay, if you happen across it while channel-surfing, you stop and watch it, even if it's halfway through already.
In a word, perfection. (or at least as close to it as any movie I've seen in the last 5 years)