The Christmas Dream Review: The Kingdom's First Musical in Decades Delivers a Heavy Dose of Sentimental Spectacle.

Reportedly the first Thai musical in five decades, The Christmas Dream is directed by Englishman Paul Spurrier and presents a curious mixture of the contemporary and the classic. The film serves as a modern-day rags-to-riches tale that journeys from the northern highlands to the bustling capital of Bangkok, featuring vintage, vibrant aesthetics and an abundance of heartstring-tugging musical highlights. The music and lyrics are the work of Spurrier, set to an orchestral score from Mickey Wongsathapornpat.

A Journey of Hope and Morality

Exhibiting a steely resolve but in a more diminutive frame, young actress Amata Masmalai plays Lek, a ten-year-old schoolgirl. She is compelled to flee after her abusive stepfather Nin (played by Vithaya Pansringarm) brutally kills her mother. Setting out with only her one-legged doll Bella for company, Lek is guided by a unyielding sense of right and wrong, directed toward a new home by the spirit of her late mum. Her path is peppered with a series of picaresque companions 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 song-and-dance format is plain to see – or, to be precise, it is resplendent. Initial rural sequences in particular capture the warm, vibrant feel reminiscent of The Sound of Music.

Dance and Cinematic Flair

The dance routines frequently has a lively visual energy. A particular standout erupts on a financial district campus, which serves as Lek's introduction to the Bangkok corporate grind. Featuring suited professionals cartwheeling in and out of a great clockwork procession, this represents the one instance where The Christmas Dream touches upon the stylized complexity found in golden-age musical cinema.

Musical and Narrative Shortcomings

Although lavishly orchestrated, much of the score is excessively anodyne both in melody and lyrics. Instead of studding songs at pivotal points in the plot, Spurrier douses the film with them, apparently overcompensating for a somewhat weak storyline. Only during the beginning and conclusion – with the tragedy of Lek's mother and when her spirits wane in Bangkok – is there sufficient challenge to balance an overly simple and sweet journey.

Brief hints of mild social commentary, such as when Lek's sudden good fortune has avaricious villagers crawling all over her, are unlikely to satisfy more mature viewers. While could buy into the pervasive optimism, the foreign setting cannot conceal a fundamentally narrative blandness.