The Greatest Showman

Movies to Watch During the Break

The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman is a heartfelt, emotional Musical and Drama film directed by Michael Gracey. The movie stars Hugh Jackman, Michelle Wiliams, Zac Efron, and Zendaya. It takes place at Barnum & Bailey Circus in New York City, New York, during the 1800’s.

The movie begins with P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) as a child, staring at a red suit in the window of a clothing shop. As the movie continues, Barnum meets a little girl his age named Charity (Michelle Williams) and the audience is shown the story of how they fell in love and created a beautiful family of their own. The couple eventually has two daughters and are not able to properly take care of them due to Barnum losing his job. In time, he buys a museum building, and creates a circus for “outcasts,” which helps him sustain his family. As the circus is slowly being built up and receiving more popularity, P.T. Barnum decides to recruit Phillip Carlyle who slowly starts falling in love with Anne Wheeler (Zendaya), the trapeze artist at Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circus begins to get bigger and bigger with a lot of new opportunities for the Barnum and Carlyle families to obtain.

As for the costume design in this movie, three of the most iconic looks in the movie were Lettie Lutz’s, also known as the woman with a beard’s big stage dress during the second half of “This is me,” Jenny Lind’s dazzling tour dress seen in “Never Enough”, and Anne Wheeler’s stand-out trapeze costume worn in “This is Me,” also noticed in “The Greatest Show (reprise).” Lettie Lutz’s stage dress she wears while singing the second chorus of “This is me,” was a unique pink dress with off-the-shoulder sleeves the fade into a stand-up collar. The dress has many layers and is very poofy. In another costume, Jenny Lind’s tour dress is a quite simple, giant off-white, fluffy dress. It has a gorgeous, beaded bodice and a big ruffle going down the side of the satin skirt. The dress comes with a matching cream-colored satin jacket. Lastly, is Anne Wheeler’s astonishing purple corset/leotard with ruffles at the bottom and pink beaded details on the rims. The corset also has a mesh v-line with pearls scattered across it. This costume is also paired with a matching purple cape and Anne’s historical pink wig with a curled bun and swooped bangs.

Looking at the actors’ singing, a personal favorite, “Never enough” sung by the character Jenny Lind, is ranked 6 on Screen Rant’s “The Greatest Showman: All 9 Songs Ranked from Least to Worst” by Craig Elvy. The song begins very softly, making many underestimate the power of the singer, and slowly gets louder and louder as the singer starts belting out beautiful and heartfelt lyrics. Near the end, Jenny belts out an exceedingly long “for me.” The song, again, ends on another incredibly soft “for me.” However, many believe this song did not even deserve to be on the list at all as many of the other songs out-numbered “Never Enough.” The rest of the soundtrack in the movie includes “The Greatest Show,” “A Million Dreams,” “A Million Dreams (reprise),” “Come Alive,” “The Other Side,” “This is Me,” “Rewrite the Stars,” “Tightrope,” “Never Enough (reprise),” “From Now On,” and “From Now On (reprise).”

Overall, The Greatest Showman is a beautifully produced movie. Viewers can connect with each character, including both the “outcasts” and the “normals.” The movie has a multi-theme, being “outcasts are still people” and “don’t lose yourself no matter where you are in life.” The songs were catchy, and many of the costumes were jaw dropping, to put it lightly. It is believably one of the best, most emotional films to be released in the year 2017.