The Christmas Dream Review: The Kingdom's Pioneering Musical in Half a Century Delivers a Heavy Dose of Heartfelt Pageantry.
Hailed as the first Thai musical in five decades, The Christmas Dream is directed by Englishman Paul Spurrier and offers up a curious mixture of modern and traditional elements. It functions as a modern-day rags-to-riches tale that travels from the northern highlands to the urban sprawl of Bangkok, featuring old-school Technicolor aesthetics and an abundance of heartstring-tugging musical highlights. Its songs are crafted by Spurrier, set to an orchestral score from Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
A Journey of Hope and Morality
Exhibiting a Michelle Yeoh-like resolve but in a more diminutive frame, Amata Masmalai takes on the role of Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is forced to escape after her abusive stepfather Nin (portrayed by Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally assaults her mother. Setting out with only her one-legged doll Bella for companionship, Lek is guided by a strong moral compass, directed toward a new home by the ghost of her deceased mother. Her quest is peppered with a cast of colorful characters who test her resolve, among them a spoiled 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 plain to see – or, more accurately, it is gloriously evident. The early countryside sequences especially capture the warm, vibrant feel reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Visual and Choreographic Flair
The dance routines frequently has a quickstep snap and pace. A particular standout breaks out on a financial district campus, which acts as Lek's first taste of the Bangkok rat race. With business executives cartwheeling in and out of a great clockwork cortege, this represents the one instance where The Christmas Dream touches upon the abstract sophistication characteristic of golden-age musical cinema.
Musical and Narrative Shortcomings
Despite being lavishly orchestrated, a lot of the score is too bland both in melody and lyrics. Rather than studding songs at pivotal dramatic moments, Spurrier saturates the film with them, apparently trying to mask a somewhat weak storyline. Substantial adversity is present solely at the beginning and conclusion – with the mother's death and when her hope falters in Bangkok – is there enough challenge to offset an otherwise straightforward and saccharine narrative arc.
Brief hints of mild social commentary, such as when Lek's stroke of luck has avaricious villagers crawling all over her, are hardly enough for more mature audiences. While could buy into the general optimism, the foreign backdrop cannot conceal a underlying sense of blandness.
