CinemaSerf
7
|
Jan 09, 2023
Like many other folks, I have a sort of allergy to hype: particularly when it is built on power ballads and an actor who just doesn't "belong" in the role. I also saw Michael Crawford doing his "Barnum" thing on stage in 1982 - so to be fair, my expectations of this were not especially high. I was pleasantly surprised! Jackman as the street urchin son of an itinerant tailor with grand dreams is really pretty good. He brings oodles of charisma to the part of P.T. Barnum determined to win the love of "Charity" (Michelle Williams), despite her being from a wealthy family living well beyond his meagre means. The chronology of his actual achievements - his marriage, family and his American Museum of Curiosities morphing into a circus of all things diverse from the human race - including Sam Humphrey as "Gen. Tom Thumb" and a super Keala Settle as the "Bearded Lady" - is well enough documented and this musical version pretty much follows the rags to riches tale of this inspirational and aspirational man as he taps into the lucrative vein of giving the public what they want. That public is, however, not the one he wants - he wants the toffs, too - so enlisting the help of debonaire, bored, theatre producer Zac Efron "Philip Carlyle" they head to the UK for an audience with Queen Victoria - the epitome of "acceptable society" at which he meets Jenny Lind - the legendary Swedish singer and his fortunes seem to be unstoppable... Efron is good, too - you are reminded of just how far he has come since his "High School Musical" (2006) days; as is Rebecca Ferguson in the role of "Lind". I have to say that I found the songs a little bland; the film lacks a killer song - "A Million Dreams", "Come Alive" and "Rewrite the Stars" do get the toes tapping, but they meld into each other leaving a pleasing, but unmemorable soundtrack to this charming family drama. It's good, not great - and far better than I was expecting.
