Movie Review: The Most Colorful Time of the Year (2022)

Synopsis: Michelle, an optometrist and widowed mother, learns her daughter's science teacher, Ryan, is colorblind and encourages him to participate in a trial and try on a pair of glasses that can correct the problem. Ryan is resistant to the idea at first but, with help from her daughter, is convinced to do it, opening up a whole new world for him.

Who's in it? The movie stars Katrina Bowden, Christopher Russell, Ava Weiss, Joanna Douglas and Holly Jade Balmer.


Review: This is a movie my wife wanted to watch after seeing some previews for it, so I added it to our library, and we watched it yesterday evening (trying out the homemade Hallmark movie bingo cards I created). Unfortunately, this movie just wasn't as good as some of the other Hallmark holiday films that have come out this year.

I spent a chunk of the night trying to think of a word that described this movie. After much consideration, I think "disjointed" comes closest. As I was watching this, I got the feeling the movie was originally only going to be about Ryan's (Russell) colorblindness and then someone had the brilliant idea of making it a Christmas movie too, or at least that's how it felt. If I am right about that, it's most likely because the main story didn't provide a whole lot in terms of substance - science teacher can't see color, now he can, falls in love with the woman who helped him, and the Christmas part of it was more about providing filler.

Even if I'm wrong about that, the overall movie just didn't work for us. A lot of the Christmas stuff just seemed forced. Ryan is inexplicably a Scrooge because of his colorblindness, which would have made a whole lot more sense had he become colorblind because of an accident or something rather than having the condition his whole life and not really knowing what he was missing out on. Oh, and that part about him not knowing how mistletoe ties into the Christmas holiday was just stupid. The man went to college and had a Ph.D., he wasn't a moron.

I will say I did like him and Michelle (Bowden) as a couple, though she seemed to be very pushy and crossed some serious ethical lines by enrolling him in the trial without his consent (not to mention using it as a way to start a romantic relationship with him). The chemistry seemed to be there from the start, and it was disappointing the movie pretty much wasted that with a weak concept and a bunch of rom-com/Christmas movie cliches.

Final Opinion: I usually give points for uniqueness, but this film will be an exception to that. I think the colorblindness plot, as written, didn't provide enough substance and trying to make it part of a Christmas movie by using it as an excuse to make him a Scrooge just didn't work. On the plus side, I won at Hallmark bingo.

My Grade: D

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