Good Stuff! The Greatest Showman

I saw the previews of The Greatest Showman, the movie about the circus guy. I rolled my eyes. The circus? Come on.

But my daughters, one by one, went to see it and came home raving.

And then my wife went to see it and came home raving.

And then my youngest was playing some music the other night, and I said, “Ooh, that’s nice. Good beat. Wow. What is that?”

She said with much affection, “The Greatest Showman, loser.”

I said to myself, maybe the previews simply stank. I said, I’ve seen movies where the previews were better than the full-length film. Maybe this was the reverse.

I said, to my fine daughter and wife, “How about a movie night?”

They were more than game to see it a second time. So we went and saw The Greatest Showman this week.

Here’s the report.

Oh. My. Holy. Freaking. Heck!

This movie is one of the best movies I’ve seen in the last few years. And get this: it was released more than eleven weeks ago, back in December of last year. How many movies do you know that stay in the theaters for eleven weeks straight? When a movie keeps attracting crowds week after week, long after the release night hype has faded, they say it “has legs.”

Let me tell you, this one has some legs. The music is awesome. The visuals are wonderful. And the story—the story is everything a story should be. I came out of the theater having wept and cheered and bitten my nails and been thrilled with a number of the scenes. I came out of the theater happy, positive, thinking about life, thinking about what really matters.

Look, if you enjoy musicals, if you enjoy dramas, if you enjoy Hugh Jackman of Wolverine fame, you must drop everything you’re doing right now and run to see this before it leaves the theaters. You’ll be so happy you did.

And now, I’m going to figure out how I can go see it again.