Ok, here’s another movie that I passed up, this was not because of reviews, but I really didn’t like Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables (2012). The musical is one of my favorites that I got to see on Broadway and his vocals were not strong enough for the part. Yes, he has performed on stage, but the only good parts in the movie were the actors who were from the stage; Samantha Barks (Eponine) and Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche).
The director, Michael Gracey, has this movie as his first film and unlike the awkwardly directed Les Miserables, Gracey injects a speed and sweep that works as a musical. The screenplay is by Jenny Bicks, who has written mostly television including The Big C, and Bill Condon who could have directed the film, he directed Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Dreamgirls (2006). The lyrics to this original musical are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul who also worked on La La Land (2016). It seems like a passion project for Jackman and Gracey who make an introduction at the beginning of the film thanking audiences. It had an Academy Award nom, but just kinda held on at the box office.
The director, Michael Gracey, has this movie as his first film and unlike the awkwardly directed Les Miserables, Gracey injects a speed and sweep that works as a musical. The screenplay is by Jenny Bicks, who has written mostly television including The Big C, and Bill Condon who could have directed the film, he directed Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Dreamgirls (2006). The lyrics to this original musical are by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul who also worked on La La Land (2016). It seems like a passion project for Jackman and Gracey who make an introduction at the beginning of the film thanking audiences. It had an Academy Award nom, but just kinda held on at the box office.
The film pulled in $171 million compared to Les Miserables’ $148 million. This is not the best musical, but works, superior to Les Miserables which is miserable. Of course, I went to the circus, I knew the name Barnum & Bailey, P.T. Barnum is world famous, Bailey a little less so. The film begins with the “Greatest Show” song with Barnum (Jackman) walking from the darkness to the center ring. The song fades and we get the flashback to young Phineas (Ellis Rubin) and his father (Will Swenson) who is a tailor for well-to-do families including the family of young Charity Hallett (Skylar Dunn).
His father wears a top hat that Phineas inherits as a connection to his father. Charity is busy taking etiquette lessons from a tutor under the stern eyes of her father (Fredric Lehne). Phineas plays around making Charity spit out her drink. Charity’s father is angry at Phineas and forbids him from seeing her. Phineas is alone at a beach when Charity walks up to him and they break into the “A Million Dreams” song with Phineas’ vocals provided by Ziv Zaifman. He writes letters to Charity and slips it into the mailman’s bag. Then this shifts to the older Phineas singing with the older Charity (Michelle Williams). She is a surprise as a singer joining in on this song and others.
His father wears a top hat that Phineas inherits as a connection to his father. Charity is busy taking etiquette lessons from a tutor under the stern eyes of her father (Fredric Lehne). Phineas plays around making Charity spit out her drink. Charity’s father is angry at Phineas and forbids him from seeing her. Phineas is alone at a beach when Charity walks up to him and they break into the “A Million Dreams” song with Phineas’ vocals provided by Ziv Zaifman. He writes letters to Charity and slips it into the mailman’s bag. Then this shifts to the older Phineas singing with the older Charity (Michelle Williams). She is a surprise as a singer joining in on this song and others.
We find out that Phineas is working to provide for his wife and two kids, Caroline (Austyn Johnson) and Helen (Cameron Seely) working as a clerk in New York. He has ideas, but finds the company has gone bankrupt with the sinking of the company’s ships. Phineas goes the next day to the bank, sees a little person (Sam Humphrey) who gets rejected, and then finds he can’t get his museum started without collateral. On the rooftop of his apartment, Charity is doing laundry while watching over her kids, Phineas arrives and tells her the news.
Phineas has a gift for his daughters, a spinning box that projects stars, so we get a reprise of “A Million Dreams” and this resolves Phineas to make his dreams real. He uses the deed of the sunken ships as collateral to open his museum filled with animal statues. Phineas has his family promoting the museum, but no tickets are sold. He reads Tom Thumb to his daughters who tell him he needs something alive like a mermaid, a reference to one of his biggest, popular scams the Feejee mermaid which was a monkey sewn to a fish. I think the movie leaves this out to keep Barnum from being a con man.
Phineas has a gift for his daughters, a spinning box that projects stars, so we get a reprise of “A Million Dreams” and this resolves Phineas to make his dreams real. He uses the deed of the sunken ships as collateral to open his museum filled with animal statues. Phineas has his family promoting the museum, but no tickets are sold. He reads Tom Thumb to his daughters who tell him he needs something alive like a mermaid, a reference to one of his biggest, popular scams the Feejee mermaid which was a monkey sewn to a fish. I think the movie leaves this out to keep Barnum from being a con man.
Phineas starts putting up flyers around town looking for unusual people. He goes to the house of the little person and gives him dreams of being important, riding on a horse as a general, and he agrees. I really like Humphrey as an actor and will have an eye for his next project. Next, as Phineas goes on his recruitment, he hears a beautiful song, he goes up to the tailoring shop and the women try to send him away. Phineas finds behind a sheet the voice belongs to Lettie (Keala Settle) who is the bearded lady. It is of course nice of this film, that Barnum is bringing unusual people who were in the shadows out to be the stars, but I keep wondering if he was more exploiting their differences for his own payroll.
Settle was in the Meryl Streep film, Rick and the Flash (2015), she’s another actor I’d like to see in other films. The Bearded Lady is my gauge in how the performers are treated and how they feel. The other was that Jackman is fine, but I was waiting for Zac Efron’s character to show up in the movie. Phineas has his museum filled with performers, one of my favorites is the Huge Man, played by Daniel Everidge who says he weighs five hundred pounds. Barnum instantly changes that to 750 lbs. and adds padding to his costume! Of course, the other star act is an acrobatic duo with Anne Wheeler played by Zendaya. Surprisingly, she has only one song in the film. Anne and her partner join Barnum’s circus to not only show their talents, but also to escape racism.
Settle was in the Meryl Streep film, Rick and the Flash (2015), she’s another actor I’d like to see in other films. The Bearded Lady is my gauge in how the performers are treated and how they feel. The other was that Jackman is fine, but I was waiting for Zac Efron’s character to show up in the movie. Phineas has his museum filled with performers, one of my favorites is the Huge Man, played by Daniel Everidge who says he weighs five hundred pounds. Barnum instantly changes that to 750 lbs. and adds padding to his costume! Of course, the other star act is an acrobatic duo with Anne Wheeler played by Zendaya. Surprisingly, she has only one song in the film. Anne and her partner join Barnum’s circus to not only show their talents, but also to escape racism.
Phineas sings “Come Alive” joined by the rest of the ensemble and his museum is renamed as a circus to get back at a journalist, James Gordon Bennett (Paul Sparks) who doesn’t like anything he reviews. Barnum moves his family into a mansion even though Charity is happy at their run down apartment. He is also unhappy when his daughter’s ballet classmates look down on her for her association with the circus. Phineas wants approval from high society and tries to get it by talking with playwright Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) he later says his middle name is Bailey. He doesn’t want to be connected to the circus, but finds his half-empty plays give him no satisfaction. Phineas sees Carlyle at a bar, sings a duo with him in “The Other Side”, and he agrees to be a partner.
Carlyle arranges a meeting with Queen Victoria (Gayle Rankin) and brings along all of the circus performers. There he meets the “Swedish Nightingale”, Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), Loren Allred provides her singing voice. She’s the key to entering the upper class and he of course turns his back on the circus. So, the rest of the movie deals with his choices to get him back to the traveling circus. The film has some good songs, including Settle's lead song, "This is Me", and faced some criticism that the movie was not reflective of the real life P.T. Barnum. Seriously, if anyone believes in anything in the movie, then they fell for one of the greatest Barnum scams. It is pure entertainment. One of Patton Oswalt’s bits was about the circus and why it’s still around; the answer is the legend built by Barnum.
Carlyle arranges a meeting with Queen Victoria (Gayle Rankin) and brings along all of the circus performers. There he meets the “Swedish Nightingale”, Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), Loren Allred provides her singing voice. She’s the key to entering the upper class and he of course turns his back on the circus. So, the rest of the movie deals with his choices to get him back to the traveling circus. The film has some good songs, including Settle's lead song, "This is Me", and faced some criticism that the movie was not reflective of the real life P.T. Barnum. Seriously, if anyone believes in anything in the movie, then they fell for one of the greatest Barnum scams. It is pure entertainment. One of Patton Oswalt’s bits was about the circus and why it’s still around; the answer is the legend built by Barnum.
Four Top Hats out of Five!
#TheGreatestShowman, #MichaelGracey, #HughJackman, #KealaSettle
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