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“THERE’S a sucker born every minute,” is the most famous thing circus boss PT Barnum probably didn’t say.
Like one of Barnum’s infamous hoaxes, The Greatest Showman is pure flim-flam.
In the very capable jazz hands of Hugh Jackman, the conman has become an all-singing, all-dancing champion of diversity who gives his bearded ladies and muchmaligned midgets a chance to step out of the shadows.
This may be nonsense but it’s well-meaning and, most importantly, entertaining nonsense.
Hugh Jackman’s Barnum is a conman we can all buy into – he’s a dreamer, a visionary and a very lovable rogue.
A slick early number called A Million Dreams distills his entire childhood into a punchy montage.
We’re in the 1820s watching a teenage pauper get a glimpse of the high life when he travels to a huge country pile with his tailor father. At the home of the Hallets, he exchanges furtive glances with young Charity and is rewarded with a stinging slap to the face from her father.
“We can live in a world that we design,” is the song’s refrain. And Barnum is going to be the architect of his own destiny.
Defunct deeds for a sunken fleet allow him to secure a bank loan for a risky venture – a museum of “Oddities” in Manhattan which on the advice of Charity, now his wife (Michelle Williams), he will fill with real-life freaks.
There’s a 500-pound Russian chap whom he will bill as the 750-pound “Irish Giant” and teenage midget (Sam Humphrey) will be “The Real Tom Thumb”.
His most tuneful freak and his second hairiest (Dog Boy claims that title by a whisker) is Lettie Lutz, aka the Bearded Lady, played by Broadway star Keala Settle.
But the real star of the show is Zendaya Coleman, a black trapeze artist who falls in love with Barnum’s new business partner (Zac Efron).
The film’s most memorable sequence is a scene where the couple defy gravity and the racial divide while trilling a catchy number called Rewrite The Stars. The lyrics are cheesy but the routine soars. This frothy yarn suggests we’re all born with a little sucker inside of us. And real joy can be ours if we allow the gullible little fool to be hoodwinked, duped and shamelessly diddled for an hour and a half.
After all, isn’t this why we head to the cinema in the first place? NEXT WEEK: All The Money In The World,a THE WEEK AFTER: Darkest Hour,