The Christmas Dream Review: Thailand's Pioneering Stage-to-Screen Spectacle in Decades Is Big On Heartfelt Pageantry.
Hailed as the first Thai musical in half a century, The Christmas Dream comes under the direction of Englishman Paul Spurrier and offers up a curious blend of modern and traditional elements. It functions as a contemporary Oliver Twist that journeys from the hills of the north to the bustling capital of Bangkok, adorned with vintage, vibrant aesthetics and plenty of heartstring-tugging musical highlights. The music and lyrics are crafted by Spurrier, set to an orchestral score from Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
A Journey of Innocence and Ethics
Portrayed with a Michelle Yeoh-like determination but in a much smaller frame, Amata Masmalai takes on the role of Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is forced to escape after her abusive stepfather Nin (played by Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally assaults her mother. Venturing forth with only her disabled toy Bella for companionship, Lek relies on a unyielding sense of right and wrong, promised toward a better life by the spirit of her deceased mother. Her path is peppered with a series of colorful companions who challenge her principles, including a pampered rich girl in dire need of a companion and a charlatan physician peddling dubious miracle cures.
Spurrier's affection for the song-and-dance format is abundantly clear – or, more accurately, it is gloriously evident. The early rural sequences in particular capture the warm, vibrant feel reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Visual and Choreographic Pizzazz
The dance routines often possesses a quickstep visual energy. A particular standout erupts on a financial district campus, which acts as Lek's introduction to the Bangkok rat race. With suited professionals tumbling in and out of a large mechanical cortege, this represents the one instance where The Christmas Dream approaches the stylized complexity characteristic of golden-age musical cinema.
Story and Song Shortcomings
Although lavishly orchestrated, much of the music is too anodyne musically and lyrically. Instead of studding songs at pivotal dramatic moments, Spurrier saturates the film with them, apparently overcompensating for a somewhat weak narrative. Substantial adversity is present solely at the beginning and conclusion – with the mother's death and when her hope falters in Bangkok – is there sufficient hardship to balance an otherwise straightforward and saccharine narrative arc.
Fleeting hints of gentle class satire, such as when Lek's stroke of luck attracts greedy locals crawling all over her, are hardly enough for older viewers. While might embrace the pervasive optimism, the foreign backdrop cannot conceal a fundamentally narrative blandness.
