The Most Colorful Time of the Year

This is one of the most driest Christmas movies I have ever seen. I get the storyline but the entire film is so lackluster, and feels forced. I have nothing against the characters but it feels like they're trying too hard to make the entire film convincing, let alone the storyline. It's a film you'll watch one time and forget about it because it's just not solid enough, even with a few cute elements. Those elements feel forced, too.

Christmas movies, generally speaking, is meant to give you the holiday feels, I get that, but it's also cheesy and unrealistic. It forces us to believe that everyone is giving, helpful, more specifically, around Christmas time, and that there is always some handsome prince out there waiting to sprinkle his magic by accident to someone unsuspecting, and fall in love. Total cliché for sure. Anyway, circling back, this film is a solid 5/10 for me. It's nice but only for one night.

You know what to expect from this movie. But, the surprise is the knowledge you will take with you when the credits roll.

Being color blind for me, was just a "thing" that some people have. Now because of this movie, I am more aware of not only the condition, but of the related problems and trauma associated with it.

The lead actors - Chris Russell and Katrina Bowden - are fantastic and well cast. The cinematography used attempts to teach the audience with normal eyesight what being totally colorblind May mean. And the captions during the closing credits... offer contacts for those with this type of problem to get help if needed. This underscores the reality of the problem.

Although this is a message movie, I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie is: from writers and director to the actors involved . And, I highly recommend it to any audience of any age to watch, learn, and enjoy.

The type of color blindness in this film, where the person cannot see ANY colors, is called monochromacy. It's extremely rare, and no special glasses are going to allow the person to see color. They MAY allow for greater separation of shades. This type of medical misinformation could only give false hope to people who've suffered from that condition since birth.

So I docked stars for that.

My wife otherwise liked the movie more than I did, as she got into his resistance to admit the condition or seek help for it. Parts of the movie were quite emotional, those mostly having to do with his prospects for treatment and then the (false) results of getting the "special glasses".

The romance part, however, was pretty standard, with the misinterpretations of past or friendly relationships. It's not worth a rewatch for me since I didn't buy into the optometry, and not worth a rewatch for my wife because even though it moved her, most of the suspense involved when and why he'd admit his condition and agree to be examined, and that's no mystery on subsequent viewings.

The good: recognition for a hidden disability.

The bad: too many moments of awkward dialog, a cringy, stalker-like ex-boyfriend character, and too many unrealistic moments that detract from the overall message, especially with the aforementioned ex-boyfriend. Also, I wish Hallmark would really vet scripts to make sure they accurately portray professions. Schools never have a database of teachers' personal cell phone numbers for parent use, and teachers would never just up and leave in the middle of the school day on a whim. The formulaic conflict in the last half hour was unnecessary and unrealistic.

This is an unusual premise. The usual Christmas activities in this movie seem limited to a pageant and Christmas decorations, the latter for obvious reasons. The persistence of Michelle and her daughter, Bailey, lead to tension that isn't romantic for over half the movie. The ploy by Bailey is cute and changes the tone to be more Christmas like.

No matter how accurate is the representation of what Ryan sees, the movie works to capture the wonder he experiences. I do question how accurate the science of it is especially given that during the premiere on Hallmark, there is a commercial for corrective glasses. Is it irony that Ryan is a science teacher? I couldn't find anything conclusive in a simple internet search, but what I saw led me to believe that the actual experience is not as pure especially if Ryan's case was extreme as Michelle stated.

And Mark!? What is with his request that leads to the misunderstanding? Why in the world would Michelle agree?

The acting is OK. The dialogue is ok with a few good moments. Given the relatively small amount of screen time spent by Michelle and Ryan when things are good, it is hard to say there is much chemistry between Katrina Bowden and Christopher Russel or why the characters would feel so strongly.