This Is Where You Want to Be

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2019)

A few friends I know spoke widely of The Greatest Showman and even told me to see it for myself, but I was not at all willing to go see it. However, all of that changed for the better when I did and found out a few songs were mesmerizing and enchanting enough to hear. Hugh Jackman really kicked it up with another impressive musical performance following from 2012's Les Miserables now as ringmaster P.T. Barnum.
In the mid-to-late nineteenth century, Phineas Taylor Barnum grew up with barely anything as a young boy, but when he found love in a young girl from a rich family who openly despised him over his impoverish background and then proposes to her as they got older, he decides to show the world what more he can do by finding unique people and performers to put on a show for all to enjoy.
The amazing cast that also included Zac Efron, Zendaya, and Michelle Williams were also a plus for this movie (glad to see and hear Efron return to his singing roots since his High School Musical days). And the plot? Explaining how the duo Barnum & Bailey came to be as circus founders in musical form was something I didn't expect. I think the true breakout in the cast is Keala Settle as the Bearded Lady with her song "This Is Me." True, there were some historical inaccuracies, name changes, and not meant to be entirely on point with the circus' true humble beginnings, but I'll bet this was the film crew's way of keeping the story moving with its moments of romance, drama, conflict, and deception. Despite Barnum facing so much criticism from the brutality of locals who were either discriminatory toward his circus troupe or resentful of who he is in general, he went and proved them wrong that he had a knack for making his hard work a reality, no matter who he and his troupe were.
Newcomer director Michael Gracey did an exceptional job and a remarkable soundtrack (namely "Rewrite the Stars" performed by Zac Efron and Zendaya is also a catchy tune). Some songs still play inside my head whenever I think of this movie. I have no regrets. I enjoyed plenty.