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Saturday, December 23, 2017
MOVIE REVIEW/The Greatest Showman
A Good Movie -- But A Greatest Disservice

Hugh Jackman
as P.T. Barnum, with his troupe of performers in Michael Gracey's "The Greatest
Showman".
Fox
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Saturday,
December 23,
2017
"The Greatest Showman" glories in zeal, triumph and salutes performance, success
and the diversity of entertainers. From the opening frame I was filled
with appreciation at this tidy, invigorating musical about showbusiness.
Michael Gracey's sparkling feature film directing debut is exuberant, moving,
colorful and musically sublime.
Mr. Gracey's film is the story of Phineas T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), better known
as P.T. Barnum, the master manipulator, publicity machine and promoter of the
grandiose, exaggerated and extreme. Mr. Barnum was all about publicity,
audience, attention and admiration yet was also an unsavory figure at best.
Mr. Jackman is pure service with a smile though his Barnum is never far from his
fears or failure, no matter how successful his circus act is. Show
business lies on a knife's edge of success and failure, and fear is what ties
those two together.
"Greatest Showman" is also about dedication, sacrifice and the risks sacrifice
entails. When Barnum heads off on tour with one of his singing acts Anna
Lind (Rebecca Ferguson) he estranges Charity Barnum (Michelle Williams) and
their children. In the film's nod to class gulfs Charity's monied father
castigates and belittles Barnum for his roots in poverty for all the years he's
tried to win Charity's heart. Showbusiness means having to take risks, and
Barnum's dance on a tightrope from a hardscrabble upbringing -- a dance Mr.
Gracey moves past at warp speed -- to success based on others' hardships, a
mirror of Barnum's life -- is a dance fraught with tension, ups and downs.
The film, which has melancholic moments, operates as a tragicomedy of the fine
line between acceptance, rejection and gulf between rich and poor. On a
visit to Buckingham Palace the fierce glares Mr. Barnum's troupe receive speak
volumes. As he seeks money from bankers to keep his dream show stage
fueled Barnum is constantly met with "no" (as filmmakers are in Hollywood, so
what's new?)
"Greatest Showman" adroitly displays the poverty of the heart, the poverty of
the rich and the poverty of love. A theater critic of Barnum's cheekily
exemplifies the latter. But Barnum and the critic need each other,
something the film makes no bones about. Opposites attract, whether in
negative or positive ways, and "Greatest Showman" demonstrates that each needs
the other in order to survive and succeed. Call it perversity, call it
profiteering but certainly call it reality.
Fear arguably informs every choice Barnum makes and every rejection the powerful
make in showbusiness. The vitriolic, hateful mobs of New Yorkers who
despise Barnum's show of the different and daring exert their fears too, in
dangerous ways. They are a show unto themselves, not unlike the mobs at
Donald's political rallies in 2016, like those who sucker-punched or abused
other attendees. Donald and P.T. Barnum are the same person, except one of
them (Barnum) performed in blackface, a fact Mr. Gracey's movie completely and
outrageously ignores.
Barnum was an unvarnished racist, and "Greatest
Showman" does its audience the greatest disservice by omitting this information.
In other areas of the film race is manifested mostly subtly: a rich white male
producer of plays (Zac Efron) pretends he isn't romantically interested in a
Black female performer (Zendaya) in order to keep up appearances for his racist
family.
I suspect Barnum's contradictions made him far less admirable than "Greatest
Showman" (hence the ironic title) portrays him. P.T. Barnum was a brutal
person -- here he's cinematically airbrushed. We spot glimpses of pain in
Mr. Jackman's bravura turn, and the Australian's stage background gives some
shape to Barnum, a figure of tragedy, hate, rebirth and a touch of opportunism.
The game of showbiz however, is a game of appetites, some of which are
destructive. I was disappointed Mr. Gracey didn't deal with the racist
aspects of Barnum, who exploited and violated Black performers in a manner akin
to enslavement. It was a missed opportunity for the director to create a
reality that would have heightened the dimensions of the film. Barnum's
racism and violence are important and indispensable ingredients that are far too
critical and undisputed to ignore, unless the motive of Mr. Gracey's film is to
purely entertain and mislead, a most dangerous aspect of "dramatic" or "artistic
license".
With what is on the screen "The Greatest Showman" meticulously show us
the beauty and possibility of a magical ride. When the performers, all of
whom are happiest on stage -- get to shine, all is right with the world.
The world's adorers and haters (the audience) are held hostage in the palm of
the performers' hands. Mr. Gracey's own illusions about Barnum's behavior
are as poisonous and powerful as the elements of manipulation and deception
depicted in the film.
Also with: Paul Sparks, Keala Settle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Natasha Liu-Bordizzo.
"The Greatest Showman" is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America
for thematic elements including a brawl. The film's running time is one
hour and 56 minutes.
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