The Greatest Showman is a musical about inclusion that's aimed at the masses, not at those who already know that being different isn't bad. Because of that, the movie is a little shallow. But it also means that the audience that I saw it with broke out into applause as the end credits rolled.
This story about P.T. Barnum (not "the" story) shows us his rise from penniless orphan to a showman who brought those who hid in the shadows out into the bright light (all while making himself a buck). But there's really two stories going on in the film. The first is the rags to riches story of Barman. And rather than have the thrust of that story being about climbing out of the depths of poverty, this story is about the love that he has that drives him. His wife comes from money, and while she rejects that life, he spends his time trying to prove to those that live it that he belongs.
The second story is about the rich and aimless playwright, Phillip Carlyle, played by Zac Efron, who gets persuaded to become a part of Barnum's circus in an executive position. While there, he falls in love with trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya). But their relationship needs to overcome some pretty impressive hurdles since he's white and she's black and it's 1800's America. Heck, there's still people now who can't get over that sort of pairing, and that's the bigger issue that I think the movie is trying to get people to accept.
And the movie works its charm on the audience masterfully. Barnum (an obviously joyous Hugh Jackman) decides to create his circus out of what we would consider freaks - a bearded lady, a little person, a dog-faced boy, and many others. And the movie takes great care in not looking down on these individuals. They are real people, with real hopes and dreams, and real feelings. We exalt in their triumphs, and we empathize with their pain. When Barnum, himself, keeps them from seeing opera singer Jenny Lind after a performance, because he feels the rich (and judgmental) concergoers will look down on him, it leads to a wonderful musical number "This is Me." At this point we're completely on the side of the "oddities." By the time Phillip and Anne are discovered by Phillip's parents (who utterly disapprove of the two of them being together), we're completely on their side. It's obvious that they should be together. I know a few critics have called out this part of the film for being too "Hugh School Musical," but I think it was entirely intentional to keep the love story as simple as it was. By doing so, it opens the movie up to a wider audience, and makes its relevance more subtle and more affecting than you would think.
There is one main issue with the movie - If you're looking for factual truth about P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is not the place to find it. If any of this actually happened the movie probably hit on it by accident. But this is both a musical and a throwback to the olden days of Hollywood, when a biopic was based more on legend than fact. And this has a lot of legend. But it also has some solid musical numbers, and a message about tolerance that is never overbearing, and smarter than I think a lot of people are giving it credit for. I really enjoyed it.
***
