The Greatest Showman: A Review

I'm not a big fan of musicals, the last time I saw a musical it was Les Misérable and thought it was utter tosh and just didn't get it. When I saw the trailers for The Greatest Showman I just knew that Mrs. Cool would want to see it and I had a sinking feeling I would be dragged along.

The Greatest Showman has been out for a few weeks now and the hype has been building up with everyone saying how good it is but I was unconvinced as these were the same people who said Les Mis was so good. I thought I had got away with not seeing it but then Mrs. Cool dropped the bombshell that on one of my days off work when the kids were at school we would be going to our local cinema. Well, I could not be more wrong, DO believe the hype. From the very first scene with Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum singing The Greatest Show as we see his dream show unfolding I was hooked.

The Greatest Showman follows P.T. Barnum from the son of a poor tailor to a homeless orphan to a clerk at a shipping company. Barnum marries his childhood sweetheart, Charity (Michelle Williams), against her fathers wishes. They have a couple of kids but are pretty poor, things get worse when the company Barnum works for goes bust and he is unemployed. Using some under handed tactics he manages to get a loan from the bank to start his museum of curiosity. It's a failure as no one wants to see stuffed animals and waxworks, so, after an idea from one of his daughters, he decides to enlist the help of real people with unique abilities.

Featuring acts like the Bearded Lady, Dog Boy, The Irish Giant, A Trapeze Act and the Worlds Heaviest Man things start to pick up. Barnum is able to move his family into a big fancy house just down the road from his wife's parents (Just to rub their noses in his success). Even being taken on a trip to London to meet Queen Victoria by his business partner Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron). There is also a forbidden love story between Carlyle and Ann Wheeler (Zendaya). He is the son of a rich aristocrat and she is one of the trapeze artists in the circus.

However the success isn't enough and Barnum wants to be accepted by the upper classes so to improve his status he takes a European opera singer called Jenny Lynd (Rebecca Ferguson, not that one) on tour. The tour is a roaring success but Barnum being away from home puts pressure on his marriage and causes tension between him and his original acts.

After Lynd quits the tour and a disaster at the circus Barnum is left penniless again and has to eat some humble pie. He needs everyone's help and they all to pull together to get a new venue sorted so they can try and put on The Greatest Show.

I really can't over emphasise how much I enjoyed The Greatest Showman. The performances are great, the whole cast is amazing, I can't single out one individual performance as everyone was so good. It's a proper feel good film and the soundtrack is great. I was tapping my foot from the first scene and every song will get stuck in your head, I've even been listening to the soundtrack in the car for the few days since I saw the film. The more I think about it the more I realise how good it is, I would go so far as to say it is the best film I've seen in the last few years. Everyone really needs this film in their life by the end you will be singing along.

In the words of P.T. Barnum:

"It's everything you ever want,
It's everything you ever need, 
And it's here right in front of you, 
This is where you wanna be".

Fancy going to see The Greatest Showman yourself? Enter my Giveaway using the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win a £10 Odeon Gift Card. Giveaway ends midnight 1/4/18 and daily entry is available via Twitter. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Well, that's all for now.

S

You can follow Big Stevie Cool on Facebook here.