The Greatest Showman (movie musical)

This is a fantastic movie musical loosely based on the life of P.T. Barnum. It is very entertaining, with wildly catchy songs and dance numbers, but it is also enlightening. 

Barnum comes to realize that in the end, the thing that matters most is family, both his own and his circus "family". People and relationships should always come first, and when he lost sight of that, that's when he nearly lost them. The song the famous opera singer sings says "All the shine of a thousand spotlights, All the stars we steal from the night sky, Will never be enough. Towers of gold are still too little, These hands could hold the world but it'll Never be enough." In other words, when he is chasing fame and fortune and prestige, everything she represents, he will never find happiness, it will never be enough. And as a counterpoint to that, the song they sing at the very end both at the circus and while he watches his daughter's dance recital says "It's everything you ever want, It's everything you ever need, And it's here right in front of you; this is where you wanna be." His bad choices were in fact portrayed as bad. They showed real devastation and consequences for his wife, children, and himself. I felt like it was a cautionary tale for the audience of what not to do. And if the movie had ended with his wife leaving him and his house being repossessed and the circus being burned to the ground, it would have been heartbreaking yet realistic. However, I personally love that it ended as a story of redemption. That from the ashes of ruin (both actual and symbolic), a life could be rebuilt. That someone who was flawed and made some terrible decisions (as all of us have) could "come to himself", like the prodigal son, truly apologize and try to right his wrongs, and change the direction of his life. He was never so far gone that he couldn't repent and change. For me, that was the other important message of the story. That there is hope for all of us. That it is never too late to change our hearts and the course of our lives. Now, I recognize that in real life, people are often left to deal with the devastating consequences of their own or other people's bad choices, and the happy ending is much longer in coming. But because of the atonement, it will come. For all of us. For those times when we are the victims, but also for those times when we are the repentant perpetrators. We are all sinners and fall short of God's glory, but we never fall out of His saving reach. It's that message of hope that I felt as I exited the movie theater.