The Greatest Showman is all about the dizzy pleasure of letting yourself be hoodwinked, and it's a testament to the movie's idiosyncratic appeal that it never loses its power to lower your defenses and take your breath away
Michael Gracey's directorial debut is a disappointing circus of thinly developed characters, overly earnest melodrama and song-and-dance sequences that are more like unrelated music videos sewn together for a threadbare narrative
It may not be quite the greatest show on Earth, but Gracey, Jackman and the entire cast are deeply committed to entertaining and leave you feeling an old-school musical thrill
Hugh Jackman has proven himself as one of Hollywood's - and Broadway's - greatest showmen. This- is an enjoyable film, but its rags-to-riches tale in a sanitized 19th century is extremely by-the-numbers
"The Greatest Showman" is a good old-fashioned wholesome PG musical that is also a scintillatingly flashy -- and woke! -- immersion in up-to-the-minute razzmatazz