Happy Friday!
It’s been a long week but we have made it through to the weekend. I hope you guys are staying warm wherever you are and that you all have a fun and safe New Years. I reside in Dallas and it has been really cold the past couple of weeks and it is supposed to get even colder into the next week; that being said, I will probably celebrate the New Year at home where it will be nice and warm.
I have been wanting to deliver the new Movie Talk to you guys. If you have been following my blog posts, you know that I had thoughts on making the next movie talk about “The Greatest Showman.” I watched the trailer which looked really cool and I saw Zendaya, Zac Efron, and Hugh Jackman and that was enough for me. So, let’s dive in.
I will start with the rating. I gave this movie 9/10. It was well written and there was so much material that I could relate to and the construct and delivery was well done. There are so many things right about this movie that it was hard to not give it a perfect rating. There were only 5 things that I thought would have made an already amazing movie even better.
The music is incredible. The lyrics are put together so well, it’s a celebration and united movement that every audience will enjoy. I will say it again, my favorite song from the movie is, “This Is Me.” I actually went through the movie soundtrack to get a sneak preview of at least one of the songs before I saw the movie. As I was going down the list of songs, I saw the title, “This Is Me”, and I thought right away that was the one song I wanted to listen to. So I played the track and I hadn’t planned on listening to the whole song but when I started listening to the music and the message, I started crying because I related so much to everything that Keala Settle was singing about.
I’ve shared with you guys some of the struggles that I have been going through and it has made me question myself a lot and feel like I don’t know who I am but listening to this song, it speaks to your inner self and it’s even more amazing to see the scene and the music put together. I think I played that track probably at least 6-7 times on a loop because I needed to hear it. That song alone made me want to see that movie as soon as it was released. As I was watching the scene play out, I was quietly cheering and dancing in the movie theater.
Now that I’ve told you some of the good things about this movie, I want to talk about the 5 things that I felt would have made this movie even better.
- The Ending Song
“This Is Me” is an anthem and I really expected for it to be the movie’s ending song. It was played at the end of the movie again with the credits but it was a show-stopping tune that I thought would be the best closing number. “The Greatest Show” closing number was still a good song choice but I think it would have been great if those songs’ placement would have been switched but then the scenes would have been different and the songs worked for those scenes. The only other way to have made “This Is Me” the ending song would have been to pair the previous scenes together where they were treated like outcasts and that they didn’t belong as flashbacks and then showing them still marching into the ballroom, outside and onto the main stage.
2. Jenny Lind
The Swedish singer had a very beautiful voice but she ended up going on tour with P.T. Burnam, which really surprised me. I expected for her to join with the circus. I think the main reason why is because of her initial story of feeling like she never belonged. She said that she experienced the lavish lifestyle and the success but still felt out of place. In my mind, I thought that made her a perfect fit for the circus. She would have had her own number where she sings a solo then the cast joins in. It seemed a little weird to me to have her tour alongside Burnam and why did he have to tour with her?
She may have been a discovered talent of his but she could have gone on tour by herself. It seemed like the only way to have that sort of climax in the movie where she ends up kissing Burnam and then the circus catches on fire and they have to rebuild. The one thing I have to point out about her first performance is that I noticed she continued the same arm gestures for the duration of the song. I don’t know why I picked up on it or why it was a little distracting or noticeable but maybe it would have been good to see more movement on stage to begin the build up to help with the gestures. It just seemed like she wasn’t sure what else to do in the scene. However, it was still a good performance.
3. Charity Burnam
When I watched the trailer and saw Burnam and his wife singing together, I assumed she would be his business partner in the movie. I could just see her in costume standing next to him singing and dancing by his side. Charity Burnam said it herself that they were always a team and they discussed everything together. She has known Burnam since they were children. She knows how important this dream is to him and sometimes her husband felt that she couldn’t see why he kept pushing to give his family the best but she was also a voice of reason to him and had she been there by his side, maybe he would not have lost everything.
It was Burnam’s dream that made him the greatest showman but even his kids came to the circus often enough for one daughter to know Zac Efron’s character, Carlyle, enough to hug him. His family was also there in the beginning. His kids helped him hang posters and find new talent. If they were there that often, why couldn’t his wife be there and if she could, why wasn’t she in one of the acts? This idea however would have caused one initial problem in set up for Carlyle, who eventually takes over for Burnam, although, it still would have worked out to have both parents leave the circus to be there for their kids. I just thought it would have been good for it to have been a family company that was being created. I could even see the oldest daughter, who was learning ballet, dancing with the cast.
4. Transition Points
During the movie that had a few clever ways to let the audience know that the character was going to sing, however as you continue to watch the movie, they end up singing almost randomly and it sometimes through me off. Once the song did start, I was into the performance and I enjoyed watching it. It just would have been nice to see some better transition points. I enjoy musicals and it’s usually the initial set up that has the audience geared up to see what happens next. One of the clever ways that always introduces a new song is for the character(s) to begin to chant a certain line from the song and then the music starts to slowly fade in and everyone knows the actor(s) are going to sing. This is done in some points during the film but towards the end it loses these transitions. I did like the transition when the kids were nailing flyers to the wall with their dad, P.T. Burman, and then the music started to fade in, that was a good way to set up the scene.
5. Musical Repetoire
I liked the idea of “modern music” in a not-so modern time period. I think it was a good choice for the reason of relating to a family audience and the enthusiastic dance numbers made it very entertaining. It seemed like a wise choice to keep the audience’s attention and interest. The only draw back that I have with the musical element in the movie is that there were a lot of songs to try to fit into the movie and it almost seemed like it was rushed to fit a song into every scene. I liked every song that was done and the presentation behind it but it seemed like there was more singing then dialogue in some points in the movie. The movie starts off with a major song with Burnam and his wife when they were children and then adult-Burnam hears his daughter sing the same song as she plays with her birthday present which initial gives him the idea to start his own business.
The last mention I want to say is at the end of the movie when Burnam is watching his daughter dance on stage, he starts to sing again and although it was a touching moment, I think the ending would have been just as good without him singing again. Maybe because it was just a snippet and I wanted to hear more but because it was cut so short at the end, I thought the movie would have been okay without it.
That being said, I only had five major points that I thought stood out to me. The movie was well written and I would watch it a second time. I would probably watch any and all Zaya (Zac and Zendaya) scenes and listen to their performance of “Rewrite the Stars” again because they sounded beautiful together and Zendaya’s vocals were absolutely stunning.
Also, I would have to watch the “This Is Me” scene a couple more times to try to get over how amazing it is.
One another note, I already knew Hugh Jackman could sing because I ran across on old video of him singing in a musical a while back, so, I already knew that he would do well. Despite my five points, this movie is a masterpiece and I fell in love with it even more when I watched some of the behind-the-scenes video moments where Hugh Jackman talks about the film and the message behind it. Then, there’s the video where Keala Settle talks about “This Is Me” and she is performing the song for the first time in front of everyone. Lastly, just hearing from the Director, Michael Gracey about the energy from the cast and how they were there cheering on everyone on days that they didn’t have to come in to work. The whole idea that Gracey felt that he would never encounter something so unique and genuine in a cast made me want to watch the movie again just to look for those moments that he described.
Overall, it was an amazing film that I wish I could have been a part of, even if I was just an extra actor. If you guys haven’t seen the movie, please go check it and tell me what you thought about it.
Until next time…
Xo,
Nina.
The nina diaries 
Leave a comment