“… if I’m ripped out of your movie every time you break into song you’ve done something wrong.”

A few days ago I went to see The Greatest Showman but I’ve been working literally ever since, so I haven’t had a chance to write down my thoughts on the film. I found the performances to be great, the story to be alright, the CGI to be pretty shaky, but the film had a lot of heart. But all of this stuff is only part of what makes a musical, the largest part being the music. I found the music in The Greatest Showman to be very jarring to say the least. The film is set in 19th century America, but all of the music is very heavily inspired by the type of pop music that you’d hear on the radio today. Now don’t get me wrong, I liked most of the songs in this movie. They were really great at making you want to get up and dance, and I have no doubt in my mind that I will be listening to the film’s soundtrack at some point in time in the future; but my problem comes to where the music fits in with the rest of the movie. And my point is that it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter if your music is catchy and is being sung by Hugh Jackman who everyone knows has the voice of an angel; if I’m ripped out of your movie every time you break into song you’ve done something wrong.

Overall The Greatest Showman was a fun experience for the music, but the movie portions were passable at best. If you’re interested in this movie, I’d say skip it and just go right to the soundtrack.

I give The Greatest Showman a C