Reported to be the first Thai musical in 50 years, The Christmas Dream is directed by Englishman Paul Spurrier, and is an intriguing blend of new and old: a modern Oliver Twist that progresses from the country’s northern hills to Bangkok, with old-school Technicolor trappings and emotionally lush showstoppers aplenty (written by Spurrier and set to an orchestral score by Mickey Wongsathapornpat).
With a Michelle Yeoh-like resoluteness but half her size, Amata Masmalai plays 10-year-old schoolgirl Lek, who is forced to flee after her abusive stepfather Nin (Only God Forgives’ Vithaya Pansringarm) fatally beats her mother (Chomphupak Poonpol). Hitting the road with her one-legged doll Bella for company, Lek has only a strong moral compass to guide her to the new home she is promised by her mum’s ghost. A number of picaresque companions put it to the test, including a spoiled rich girl (Kathaya Chongprasith) desperate for a friend and a quack doctor (Adam Kaokept) hawking dodgy cure-alls.
Spurrier’s love of the musical genre is plain to see – or, rather, resplendent, with the early rural scenes in particular bottling The Sound of Music’s ruddy glow. The choreography often has a quickstep visual snap, the standout number breaking out on the financial industry campus that is Lek’s introduction to the Bangkok rat race. With business hotshots cartwheeling in and out of a great clockwork cortege, it’s the one moment where The Christmas Dream touches on the abstraction and sophistication of golden-age musicals.
Though lushly orchestrated, much of the music is too anodyne musically and lyrically. Rather than studding the drama at key moments, Spurrier douses the film with it, overcompensating for a weak storyline. Only at the beginning and end – with Lek’s mother’s death and when her spirits flag in Bangkok – is there substantial adversity to offset an overly straightforward and saccharine journey. The glimmers of mild class satire, when Lek has a stroke of good fortune that has greedy villagers crawling all over her, will hardly cut it for older audiences; young children might buy the general optimism, but the exotic setting can’t disguise the underlying blandness.
• The Christmas Dream is on Prime Video from 18 December.
