The Christmas Dream Musical Review: The Kingdom's First Musical in Half a Century Is Big On Heartfelt Pageantry.
Reportedly the first Thai musical in five decades, The Christmas Dream comes under the direction of British filmmaker Paul Spurrier and presents a fascinating blend of the contemporary and the classic. It functions as a modern-day Oliver Twist that travels from the northern highlands to the urban sprawl of Bangkok, featuring old-school Technicolor aesthetics and an abundance of emotionally rich musical highlights. Its songs are crafted by Spurrier, set to an symphonic soundtrack composed by Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
An Odyssey of Innocence and Ethics
Portrayed with a steely determination but in a more diminutive package, Amata Masmalai takes on the role of Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is compelled to flee after her abusive stepfather Nin (played by Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally assaults her mother. Venturing forth with only her disabled toy Bella for companionship, Lek is guided by a strong moral compass, directed toward a better life by the ghost of her late mum. Her quest is populated by a series of picaresque characters who test her resolve, among them a pampered rich girl desperately seeking a companion and a charlatan physician hawking questionable miracle cures.
The director's love of the musical genre is plain to see – or, more accurately, it is resplendent. The early countryside sequences in particular capture the ruddy glow reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Dance and Cinematic Pizzazz
The dance routines often possesses a quickstep visual energy. A memorable highlight breaks out on a financial district campus, which serves as Lek's introduction to the Bangkok rat race. Featuring business executives tumbling in and out of a great mechanical cortege, this stands as the one instance where The Christmas Dream approaches the stylized complexity found in classic era musical cinema.
Musical and Narrative Shortcomings
Despite being lavishly orchestrated, a lot of the score is too bland musically and lyrically. Rather than strategically placing songs at key points in the plot, Spurrier saturates the film with them, seemingly overcompensating for a underdeveloped storyline. Substantial adversity is present solely at the start and finish – with the tragedy of Lek's mother and when her hope falters in Bangkok – is there sufficient challenge to offset an overly simple and sweet narrative arc.
Fleeting glimmers of gentle social commentary, such as when Lek's sudden good fortune has avaricious villagers swarming her, are unlikely to satisfy older viewers. While might embrace the general optimism, the foreign backdrop fails to disguise a fundamentally sense of blandness.