.png)
The Greatest Showman, by Michael Gracey is truly a wonderful and aesthetically pleasing film. I watched the film with my sister and Mum on Monday 8th January. After hearing great things about the film and of course the Golden Globe win for “This is Me” made me very excited to watch the film.
As soon as the film started I was hooked, it made me shiver with how beautifully crafted the beginning was. All the colours, twirling, flying and singing was chaotically perfect. The music was beautiful throughout. However, I didn’t think Hugh Jackman (who played the ambitious showman and entrepreneur, P.T. Barnum) was too impressive, for me his voice didn’t fit the songs. Zac Efron played the playwright and future partner to Barnum, Phillip Carlyle. He did a very good performance, not my favourite of his characters but still very good. I grew up watching High School Musical and Hairspray on repeat, so seeing that Zac Efron is in his fifth musical was very exciting. His song “Rewrite the Stars” with Zendaya (who played an acrobat, trapeze artist of the name Anne Wheeler) not only sounded beautiful the scene was beautiful too, the trapeze tricks along with the lighting made the scene very romantic and the song was stuck in my head all day afterwards!
“This Is Me” and “Never Enough” were my favourite songs in the film. Two very powerful songs by two very powerful actresses. The songs were moving and almost brought me to tears in the Cinema while watching the film.
The film being a partly real story set in 1800’s New York, made it even more appealing as you had Victorian style costuming with a modern style Circus, their Costume Designer, Ellen Mirojnick did a fantastic job. Hugh Jackman’s acting as the caught up, somewhat spoilt showman was fantastic, Michelle Williams who played his wife was a great partner for Jackman and you were really rooting for him, his family and their story. Despite the twist in the story, he was a great protagonist to follow and even though some of his actions were questionable you couldn’t help but understand what he was doing and why he was doing it.
Overall the film was a very aesthetically pleasing film, it had a great storyline with a great narrative arc. It also had some fantastic songs that were performed by some great actors. I would definitely recommend you watching the film if you love a Moulin Rouge themed musical that is filled with lots of music, dancing and an equally great story.