Where this film, with some talented star wattage, completely flops is in living up to any of its exalted claims. Of showmanship, of storytelling, of being glorious, or of even “a million dreams”.

Thankfully, a couple of barnstorming melodies — chief among them, ‘This is me’, performed with great gusto by the Oddities troupe — do raise the roof.

Otherwise, for a biopic that purports to celebrate humanity in all its diversity, The Greatest Showman is surprisingly flat.

There is a chance the film will have a better shelf life on streaming platforms because of its crowd pleasing musical elements, maybe it would be better to wait it out rather than catch it in theaters where one can’t push the forward button during the dull dull bits.