I know this sounds like I’m late to the party, but I actually saw this back when it first came out and I’m only just reviewing it now. *shrug* Better late than never!
I just don’t know about the people’s reaction to this movie; either people have no idea what it is or they are so engrossed and involved that it borders on obsession. So, I guess for those people who don’t know, I’ll quickly summarize:
It’s based on the true story of P.T. Barnum, the man who invented the circus and originated show business. It follows him on his journey as he seeks out recognition and acceptance along with the “freaks” of the world.
It is an original musical with music and lyrics by the people who worked on La La Land (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul).
I actually heard about this movie way back last spring when the first teaser trailer came out. As soon as I saw “musical” and “Zac Efron” together, I was intrigued because Zac Efron has definitely been trying his best to get away from the musical genre and get into trashy, second-rate movies. I was excited to finally see him in something legit for the first time in a long time (and a musical too no less).
That’s initially what started me on this movie. As I started looking more into it and more trailers, songs, etc. came out, I was sold more and more. I was super excited for everything about it. I got the soundtrack as soon as it was available and listened to it nonstop before the movie was even out.
So, that’s my background on the movie. I was one of the few who was psyched before it came out. Did it meet my expectations?
Yeah. I’d say that it did.
I could tell just by listening to the music that it was going to be a lot of fun. I was just discussing this with my mom: I actually love every single song on that soundtrack. That hardly ever happens! Usually even on the best of soundtracks, there’s at least one or two songs that you’re kind of “meh” about, but then you rock out to the rest. Not this one. I have a hard time even choosing which one(s) I love more than the others. As I’m listening to a certain song, I’ll think “for sure, this is my favorite”, but then the next one will play and I’m like “oh no, this one is!” and then the next one comes up “no wait, I mean this one!” and so on. They’re all fantastic!
And they’re just as much fun to watch play out on screen. The dancing, cinematography, acting, and everything just adds to the experience. It was freakin’ awesome!
Speaking of acting, can we talk about Hugh Jackman for a minute? The mere fact that this guy is in this movie should be reason to go see it. Even amidst his most mediocre performances, he’s still captivating. But you can tell he’s putting his all into this one and was having a ton of fun. And for those who were iffy on his singing in Les Miserables, don’t worry, he sounds significantly better here (probably because he wasn’t forced to sing live. Also, it’s not opera-like singing and was more pop-like).
Then there’s the sets, the costumes, and all that jazz. Bravo!
They definitely took quite a bit of creative license on some things which is what the film is getting a lot of criticism for. If you look into P.T. Barnum’s life, you’ll see there are significant differences from the movie. But even without doing research, it’s pretty obvious that the whole thing is very sensationalized. It’s almost kind of meta. Barnum’s circus is fake with fake acts, fake “freaks”, and exaggerated things, he even admits it, but he claims it doesn’t matter because it entertains people. But then there’s people who are upset because he’s hoodwinking people. It’s like people today who see a fake internet video and instantly try to ruin it for everybody. Even though it was funny and/or enjoyable, people have to point out the absurdity of it instead of just being entertained.
That’s kind of how I saw this movie. People were focused far too much on the inaccuracies and whatnot instead of being entertained by a great movie.
The one thing that I thought was a little off was the romance between Zac Efron and Zendaya’s characters. It’s not to say that it was a bad idea, I just thought that it could have been handled a little better. It felt super rushed and a little forced. There was a lot more focus on so many other things that their subplot was barely squeezed in. I don’t know, it was fine. It wasn’t awful, it’s just something I think could’ve been better. And for sure, their “Rewrite the Stars” scene was worth all the hype. (It just seemed like this suddenly passionate scene out of nowhere when they had only these few random fleeting moments before.)
In the end, I’ll give this movie 8/10.
TRAILER
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