THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

15

ROLL up and rock out for director Michael Gracey’s hyperkinetic, footstomping musical based on the topsyturvy life of circus impresario Phineas Taylor Barnum. Razzle smooches dazzle in every crowdpleasing frame of this rags-to-riches fairytale set to a wickedly infectious score composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won Oscars for La La Land. The script co-written by Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon is light on characterisation and polishes the morally questionable legacy of manipulator PT to a sanitised lustre. Style trumps meaty substance with lavish period detail and swagger. Somehow, despite manifold failings, Gracey’s picture is a joy-infused blast of pure pleasure that calibrates every swoon of romance and doff of a top hat with masterful precision. Barnum once professed: “The noblest art is making others happy.”

The Greatest Showman does that with a flourish and I was gleefully suckered.

Tailor’s son PT (Hugh Jackman) falls under the spell of Charity Hallett (Michelle Williams), who harks from privileged stock.

PT and Charity live modestly with two daughters (Austyn Johnson, Cameron Seely) until daddy dearest blags a $10,000 bank loan for a museum of living curiosities.

Exhibits include bearded lady Lettie Lutz (Keala Settle), dwarf Charles Stratton (Sam Humphrey) and trapeze siblings WD and Anne Wheeler (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Zendaya).

The public swarm to PT’s palace “of the offensive and indecent”, which he expands with investment from rich kid Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron). Hungry for acceptance by the hoi polloi, PT abandons his position to mastermind the world tour of Swedish songbird Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson).

Jackman embraces his underwritten role with gusto, catalysing a sweet screen romance with Williams in between spectacularly staged musical sequences that frequently take the breath away.

Efron and Zendaya take flight in their duet Rewrite the Stars, soaring almost as high as Gracey’s picture, which logic dictates should come crashing down to earth.

In a daredevil feat worthy of Barnum himself, the disparate elements defy gravity and endlessly delight.