The Greatest Showman

One of my New Year resolutions this year is to spend more time with family and to be able to get some quality family time together. So, last night, SLing, SYuen and myself went for a movie. It is my resolute move to try to make Wednesdays or Fridays as my movie night or spend some quality time together somewhere and somehow.

So, when SLing told me that she had bought the movie tickets for a movie the other night, I was ecstatic but at the same time wondering what the movie would be. When I was told that it would be “The Greatest Showman”,  I told myself “ Oh!God! Not another “ LaLa Land “ movie! “ I must say that eventhough“ LaLa Land” won countless accolades and so on, I was practically looking at the Cineplex doorman on when he is going to open the door to signal the end of the movie! Yup! It was that bad for me.

So, I psyched myself up for this movie as we proceeded into Cineplex 6 together with a small crowd of audience. The audience then grew a bit as the advertisements and coming movie trailers were played. There were familiar faces amongst the crowd that came to watch this movie and I then just slumped back at the seat. I said to myself , “ OK! Wow me or I’ll sleep in the next 5 minutes! “

The movie started with the synchronised foot stomps, interesting music and the lyrics “ Whoaaaa”. The familiar red, black long suit and tall hat adorned the screen and Hugh Jackman appeared singing the catchy and lively song indeed. My mind was like " Here we go again....another musical which will bore the sleep out of me!  Please, NOT another La La Land bore please!" Then, the atmosphere of the movie started to be quite lively. Wah! I was intrigued. Truly I was intrigued by such opening act which was to me quite catchy and “what is going on” bewilderment. So, I sat up a bit and started to enjoy the show. The flash back and the cinematography was great. 

What really woke me up was the tight slap given to young P.T.Barnum as he owned up to making a young girl, Charity ( his eventual wife ) laugh. That was so face smacking,man! I guess, something just woke inside of me. When a movies does that to you on the inside, you know that it is gonna be a good movie. Sure enough , as the movie wore on, the singing acts were great and the characters in the movie was also brilliantly acted out. It was a nostalgically lovely musical with interesting characters. Man, "Wolverine" Hugh Jackman can sing and dance!   

Inspired by the ambition and imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman tells the story of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a mesmerizing spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is a biographical musical about young Phineas Taylor Barnum's life as a child, entrepreneur, museum owner, circus producer, and entertainment producer. As a young boy, Phineas "Finn" (Ellis Rubin), the son of a tailor, meets Charity (Skylar Dunn), the daughter of one of his father's wealthy clients. He makes her laugh and earns a slap from her father for it, but the spark between them lasts throughout their adolescence, even while she's away at boarding school and he's an orphan in the streets. 

Years later, Phineas T. Barnum a.k.a Finn and Charity (now played by Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams) marry and have two girls. He manages to secure a loan to open up a museum of oddities, and when that starts to fail, he's inspired by a brief encounter with a little person to invite unusual-looking folks including bearded lady Letty Lutz  (Keala Settle), Tom Thumb (Sean Humphrey), and black brother-and-sister trapeze artists W.D. Wheeler (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya) to join a show focused around them. With a little embellishment from costumes and makeup, he opens what will become the first circus. Although Barnum's show is critically panned, the masses love it. He earns a fortune, but Barnum can't stop looking for approval from the upper crust. Searching for ways to further his reputation amongst the upper class, he meets playwright Phillip Carlyle( Zac Efron ) and convinces him to join his venture. 

The plot has its ups and downs but overall, it was a highly entertaining movie. The rejection, frustrations and sadness of the Finn's crew of unusual people together with with their camaraderie spirit helped livened up the movie. All in all it was an entertaining movie with much humanly emotions, expectations and simplicity of life portrayed. 

I shall not ruin the plot for you as I would rather you find out yourself as you go to the cinemas for this movie. For me, the solid performance of Hugh Jackman played a great part in making this movie a success while I believes the so-called weird characters popped tremendously on the silver screen. yeah, I enjoyed it very much.....

Never mind if in history, P.T.Barnum was labelled as a fraudster and so on but he certainly brought out the "not so normal" people out to make a quick buck and so while allowing them to be who they are without having to hide in bedrooms  or even barns - away from the prying eyes of the stuck up society those days. To me, it ain't that different in modern times like this too, right? Likewise, everyone out there in this world today is out to make a quick buck out of you, right? 

Anyway, P.T. Barnum's famous quote, "There's a sucker born every minute." still rings loud, clear and true even today, is it not? Makes you feel less vulnerable now, isn't it?