The Most Colorful Time of the Year Review

Imagine Christmas through the eyes of a person who is color blind. In The Most Colorful Time of the Year, a teacher gets a new appreciation for the holiday when he gets a little help from a student and her mother.

The Most Colorful Time of the Year Overview

Ryan (Christopher Russell) is an elementary school science teacher who is known for being a scrooge. He doesn't like Christmas and doesn't want any decorations in his classroom. When Michelle (Katrina Bowden) offers free eye exams to all of the students at the school, she talks Ryan into an exam as well. While his vision is 20/20, Michelle picks up on some clues that he may be color-blind.

Determined to accurately diagnose Ryan's condition, Michelle continues to test Ryan when she bumps into him at school drop-off. It's during a gingerbread decorating activity with her daughter Bailey where she's able to definitively see that Ryan is in fact color-blind. The problem is, he doesn't want to talk about it.

Michelle won't let it go and she looks into a clinical study for a new pair of glasses that allow a person who is color blind to see color. Michelle tries to get Ryan to apply, but he just brushes her off. So, she decides to apply on his behalf so that he doesn't miss out on the opportunity.

When Ryan gets accepted into the trial and the glasses are delivered to her office, she has to admit to him that she submitted an application without his permission. He has gone through life hiding his condition. In fact, his parents don't even know that he is color blind. So when Michelle presents this idea to him, he is scared of being let down. He has tried things in the past and they never worked out.

Knowing that her teacher isn't listening to her mother, Bailey decides to give it a try herself. She wraps up the glasses and leaves them for her teacher. He can't refuse the persuasive note she left for him, so he walks out into the hallway that is lined with Christmas trees and decorations. When he puts on the glasses, he sees color for the first time in his life and he now understands why people get so excited for Christmas.

Review of The Most Colorful Time of the Year

OK. Let's start with what I liked about this movie. I thought that the story was something different, which I appreciated. I also found it interesting to think about how Christmas looks different for some people. It's understandable to think that someone would be a scrooge if he can't see any of the magic that the holiday shows us. Christmas trees with colorful ornaments and lights just looks like a gray triangle with blobs on it. The movie allows us to look at the holiday through a whole new lens, and with a new appreciation.

And that leads me to what I didn't like about this movie. It didn't have much to offer outside of the unique story. While the story may have been different and not something that we see again and again on a Hallmark movie, it wasn't very interesting. Yes, it was interesting to see the pretty Christmas decorations as Ryan was seeing them for the first time. But, other than that there just wasn't a lot of meat so to speak.

The Verdict: Vanilla. I can't think of a cute color-related description, so vanilla is the closest I could come to. And I guess vanilla can be a color, so it seems appropriate. The Most Colorful Time of the Year is just bland, slow, and boring. In a year with plenty of other good options on my Hallmark Christmas ranking, I'd skip this one and opt for something more colorful and interesting.

Watch The Most Colorful Time of the Year on Hallmark