The Christmas Dream Analysis: The Kingdom's Pioneering Musical in Half a Century Delivers a Heavy Dose of Heartfelt Pageantry.
Reportedly the first Thai musical in five decades, The Christmas Dream comes under the direction of British filmmaker Paul Spurrier and offers up a curious blend of modern and traditional elements. The film serves as a modern-day rags-to-riches tale that journeys from the hills of the north to the bustling capital of Bangkok, featuring vintage, vibrant visuals and plenty of heartstring-tugging musical highlights. The music and lyrics are the work of Spurrier, set to an symphonic soundtrack composed by Mickey Wongsathapornpat.
An Odyssey of Innocence and Ethics
Portrayed with a Michelle Yeoh-like determination but in a more diminutive frame, Amata Masmalai plays Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is forced to escape after her abusive stepfather Nin (portrayed by Vithaya Pansringarm) brutally kills her mother. Venturing forth with only her one-legged doll Bella for companionship, Lek is guided by a unyielding sense of right and wrong, promised toward a new home by the spirit of her deceased mother. Her quest is populated by a series of colorful companions who test her resolve, among them a spoiled rich girl in dire need of a companion and a charlatan physician hawking questionable miracle cures.
The director's love of the musical genre is abundantly clear – or, to be precise, it is resplendent. The early countryside sequences especially bottle the ruddy glow reminiscent of The Sound of Music.
Visual and Choreographic Pizzazz
The choreography often possesses a quickstep snap and pace. A memorable highlight breaks out on a corporate business park, which acts as Lek's introduction to the Bangkok rat race. With suited professionals cartwheeling in and out of a great mechanical cortege, this represents the singular moment where The Christmas Dream touches upon the abstract sophistication found in classic era musical cinema.
Musical and Narrative Shortcomings
Although lavishly orchestrated, much of the score is too anodyne both in melody and lyrics. Rather than studding songs at pivotal points in the plot, Spurrier saturates the film with them, apparently trying to mask a underdeveloped storyline. Only during the beginning and conclusion – with the mother's death and when her hope falters in Bangkok – is there enough hardship to offset an otherwise straightforward and sweet narrative arc.
Brief hints of gentle class satire, such as when Lek's sudden good fortune attracts avaricious villagers crawling all over her, are hardly enough for older audiences. Young children could buy into the general positive outlook, the exotic backdrop cannot conceal a fundamentally sense of blandness.
