The Most Colorful Time of the Year

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 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.

Michelle is an optometrist who suspects her daughter's teacher might be color blind and makes it her mission to help him.

I appreciate Hallmark for giving us new plots, different than the usual, I also appreciate giving the characters any condition or disability since human beings are not perfect.

While the premise of this movie was interesting it could have been made better. The beginning was very boring for me and I thought of turning it off. The there is the scientific aspect of the movie: color blindness isn't seeing in black and white but according to this, it is. In fact, one type of this condition is mixing red and green and I thought that could have worked better given it is a Christmas movie.

I like that Ryan is discovering and enjoying Christmas like it's a brand new thing. But then there is the misunderstanding at the end of the movie. I thought we were passed that with these movies. And don't even get me started with Michelle's ex, red flags everywhere. I thought the leads were okay but they had little to no chemistry and the script didn't help either.

Anyway, not a bad plot, it was simply poorly executed. I would have changed a few details.

7.0 stars.

I am surprised that Hallmark opted for an optometrist with the opportunity to operate her magic opting for open arms verses opportunistic opulence.

I think Michelle (Bowden) is extremely alluring, something about her style, and she has great potential, please showcase her in more movies. Ryan (Russell) is equally so, if not more. I kept thinking he starts off looking like Superman, then he gets these magical glasses that make him look like Clark Kent. Either way, you can't go wrong. Such a shame that the good looks and good acting was squandered on this half-priced quality of a movie.

Like I said, both leads are surprisingly easy on the eyes, and it's a shame that their visual appearances and performance skills are lost in the translation of such a dry and lifeless script. There is a strange lack of stimulating dialogue, and everything is in slow motion. The story just drags along as we are waiting for something really enlightening or at least exciting.

One illuminating moment is when he is defending his choice to become a teacher... very sincere and touching scene. And the ex boyfriend... do they get any more creepy? Hallmark sure knows how to make a person look ghoulish.

There is another great scene with Michelle's sister as she opens the flood gates for Ryan near the end. It is pure gratification for me and a rare way for Hallmark to reveal hidden feelings.

And the final scenes with the kiss (one of the best ones ever). I am so disappointed there were only about five brilliant moments interspersed throughout this sub-standard film.

The theme was great, the premise was great, but the writing was like a poopoo bag exploded and all of the contents hit the fan.

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.