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Parents' Guide to

The Greatest Showman

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Jackman and Zendaya entertain in musical Barnum biopic.

Movie PG 2017 105 minutes
The Greatest Showman Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 164 parent reviews

Marcella F.
Marcella F. Parent of 8 and 10-year-old
July 28, 2023
age 13+

Disturbing

Great music and movie, up until the part where P.T Burnum has a “scandal” with the opera singer and gives her a kiss on stage. A MARRIED FAMILY MAN has a “thing” for the singer. It was so hard to explain this to my children, I just shut the movie off. Also a lot of drinking.

This title has:

Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Orjan
Orjan Adult
March 3, 2021
age 8+

Good movie, but please add beheading by guillotine to the voilence part. No blood and it's a trick, but it should be added as an trigger for some people. Also there's lots of body shaming. (fatphobia for example) Of course that's what the movie is about. Saying people are freaks because they aren't the norm might not be the perfect thing to tell kids.

Good movie, but please add beheading by guillotine to the voilence part. No blood and it's a trick, but it should be added as an trigger for some people. Also there's lots of body shaming. (fatphobia for example) Of course that's what the movie is about. Saying people are freaks because they aren't the norm might not be the perfect thing to tell kids.
See all 164 parent reviews

What's the Story?

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is a biographical musical about young Phineas T. Barnum's life as a child, entrepreneur, museum owner, circus producer, and entertainment producer. As a young boy, Phineas "Finn" (Ellis Rubin), the son of a tailor, meets Charity (Skylar Dunn), the daughter of one of his father's wealthy clients. He makes her laugh and earns a slap from her father for it, but the spark between them lasts throughout their adolescence, even while she's away at boarding school and he's an orphan in the streets. Years later, Finn and Charity (now played by Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams) marry and have two girls. He manages to secure a loan to open up a museum of oddities, and when that starts to fail, he's inspired by a brief encounter with a little person to invite unusual-looking folks -- including bearded lady Letty Lutz (Keala Settle), Tom Thumb (Sean Humphrey), and black brother-and-sister trapeze artists W.D. Wheeler (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and Anne Wheeler (Zendaya) -- to join a show focused around them. With a little embellishment from costumes and makeup, he opens what will become the first circus. Although Barnum's show is critically panned, the masses love it. He earns a fortune, but Barnum can't stop looking for approval from the upper crust.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (164 ):
Kids say (314 ):

Exuberant performances propel this musical biopic, which isn't perfect but does occasionally delight thanks to its stellar cast, led by the inimitable Jackman. There's inherent value in watching the talented Jackman sing and dance, and he's an ideal fit for playing the titular "greatest showman" on earth. The Greatest Showman doesn't delve into some of the uglier aspects of Barnum's life (like all the hoaxes he was accused of committing), but it does manage to entertain audiences with catchy original songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the award-winning lyricists for La La Land and the Tony-winning Broadway sensation Dear Evan Hansen.

The soundtrack is in many ways more remarkable than the movie itself, with showstopping anthems like Jackman's "The Greatest Show" and "A Million Dreams" and the romantic "Rewrite the Stars" -- a lovely duet by Efron and Zendaya. The songs will stay in your head long after the credits roll, but the plot is unevenly paced. It rushes through the buildup of the Barnums' love story and sugarcoats seedy 19th-century New York to the point that it's not really recognizable as Manhattan. It's best to appreciate the film as a flashy, colorful Broadway show, where the "book" is less important than the musical numbers.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about telling a fact-based biographical story as a musical. What makes this approach appealing? Who do you think the target audience is?

  • What do you think of the Barnum quote used in The Greatest Showman: "The noblest art is that of making others happy"? Do you think Barnum accomplished that?

  • How do you think Barnum treated his performers? Was it fair? Is he a role model? Why has the circus become a controversial form of entertainment in more recent decades?

  • How accurate do you think the movie is? Why might filmmakers change the facts in movies that are based on real events? How could you find out more about Barnum's life?

  • Why is Anne and Phillip's relationship controversial? How have things changed since the time the movie takes place?

Movie Details

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