I have a problem. It's a big one: I Do. Not. Understand. Who this movie wants me to root for!

Example: The only person I feel bad for during the entire movie, is the wife (Michelle Williams). That's not great, because there is A LOT of pain being caused to many characters, but everything else feels like it's played so completely superficially. It has absolutely no depth and nothing really seems to mean anything in the long run. And that could be okay for a movie like this, but you can't have it with some characters, and not with others!

Is Michelle Williams simply too good for this movie, is something I have asked myself. Possibly. Are the two different aspects, P. T Barnum's "normal" life with its motivations, and life with his performers, too different to make sense together? Maybe. Are things like that hideous beard they glued onto Keala Settle too much for me, and does it rip me straight out of the story? Definitely.

Someone told me once, if you leave the theatre/cinema with another emotion than the one you came with, the movie has done it's job.

So, sure.

But I left feeling more than a little put off. By... pretty much everyone. I have seen it many times since and my feelings are always the same. And that's INSANE, there are SO many good actors and singers! Hugh Jackman is, well, Hugh Jackman. Zendaya is great, Zac Efron is always a strong actor, Rebecca Ferguson does this character wonderfully. To be clear, I ADORE musicals, I LIKE these actors, I absolutely LOVE this music. But for me, pretty much every major character except Mrs Barnum (Williams), her father and the critic, are extremely off-putting, either because of their behavior or because how they are played. And those last two, are not the characters I'm supposed to feel something for!

Without the music this would get a 1. Listen to the music, watch the clips online if you feel like it, and let that be that.