I'm just going to copy and paste what I said about him in my review of the movie because it's just the perfect way for me to say how I feel about him.

This character was a genuine surprise and at first seems like a character that was one-dimensional with no redeeming qualities but in the end wasn't that at all. He's a critic that always writes about how much he hates Barnum's show and seems to be someone that Barnum wants to impress, which is one of the ways where Jenny Lind comes into place. He is critical, professional, conservative, and doesn't seem to know how to have fun. I'm trying to remember if he ever actually smiled in the film. He knows what he likes and stands firm in his opinion, even if it is really stiff and snobby. However, while he does come across as stuck-up, he manages to show he is human with layers and dimensions in his very last scene. After Barnum's building had burned down, he actually came to let Barnum know personally that the ones who started the fire were caught and arrested, which was really cool in my opinion. For someone who is so conservative and prissy, that was a very personal thing for him to do, especially considering that he's not Barnum's biggest fan. He tells Barnum he never liked his show and didn't consider it art but the audience loved it and it made them happy. He even said that because it included people of different races, shapes, sizes, and deformities that another critic might've called it a celebration of humanity. He still wasn't won over by Barnum or his show but this showed he knew his opinion wasn't the only one that mattered and can actually see why so many people loved it, even though it's not his personal thing. A lot of what Barnum showed was fake and Bennett preferred something that was real but it doesn't mean he's prejudice, it's just that Barnum's show isn't his thing. He even showed genuine sympathy for Barnum, not just for what happened to his building, but for the situation with Jenny Lind in the paper that his wife had seen. Like many critics, he thrives on criticism but is still human and not just some one-dimensional snob that has no redeeming qualities. He reminds me of Anton Ego from Ratatouille, though he's not as memorable or likable as Ego, he's still a layered and likable character in the end. His final scene showing this didn't feel forced or out of character in the very slightest. Paul Sparks gives a great performance and really captured the conservative and cynical side of the character while also making him feel like a genuine and sincere human being.