Site Meter Cinema Hype » Blog Archive » Review/The Most Wonderful Time Film Festival: The Nativity Story

Review/The Most Wonderful Time Film Festival: The Nativity Story

by

There are plenty of reasons that The Nativity Story shouldn’t be that good. The script is a little stilted. The production values come across as just a little bit 70s-BBC. Even some of the Biblical source material is missing (i.e. Ummm…heavenly host?). Somehow, though, it all comes together as an absorbing, thoughtful film.

What carries The Nativity Story is…well, the story. In all of the tellings and re-tellings and re-re-tellings, it’s easy to forget Mary and Joseph as living, breathing, interacting people. They get stuck in the relative shortness of what the Bible tells us about them. The movie strives to offer us a fuller picture: Director Catherine Hardwicke gives plenty of weight to the socio-political backdrop and then delves into the meat of the story, the relationships and conflicts that sometimes get lost in the telling. It turns out that the things Mary and her loved ones (I’ve always loved the term “Holy family”) go through are harrowing and heartbreaking: legal and religious issues, social rejection, several long journeys (with a very cute donkey, but that’s neither here nor there), and an absolutely corrupt king, among other things. The character of Joseph gets an especially close inspection, and emerges as a complex but likeable person. Hardwicke seems to relish telling the story of Mary and Joseph as a tale of lovers in a dangerous time as well as a piece of religious history.

The other reason The Nativity Story succeeds is because of the actors involved. A lot of people have high hopes for Keisha Castle-Hughes after her Academy-award-nominated performance in Whale Rider. She does well here, considering what she’s given. The role of Mary is a difficult one, mostly because there’s so much expectation and so little to do: there are long stretches where the script notes clearly call for “silent awe,” which is understandable but a little awkward. When Castle-Hughes gets actual dialogue, though, she’s charming and displays strong chemistry with her fellow actors. Her scenes with Elizabeth (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Joseph (Oscar Isaac) are a relief after all of the beatific gazing. As far as Joseph is concerned, I’m not sure where Hardwicke found Isaac–he’s essentially a newcomer–but he’s outstanding: honorable and soulful, upstanding and approachable, all at the same time. It’s no wonder that Mary’s head over heels for him by the end of the movie. Everyone else sure is.

The Nativity Story isn’t perfect. The Hebrew accents feel a little silly, the angel Gabriel is vaguely creepy (though his hawk avatar is a nice touch), the wise man are obnoxious, and it occasionally comes across as a bit of a high-budget church pageant, among other things. There’s also the matter of the mysteriously missing heavenly host. But the whole here is better than the sum of its parts, and if you’re looking for a Christmas movie without Christmas lights or Danny DeVito, this is a perfectly good way to go.

Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Cinema Hype. It's Free!

One Response to “Review/The Most Wonderful Time Film Festival: The Nativity Story

  1. Sarah Says:

    Yeah I heard that the wise men are kind of used as comic relief, which I find…odd. And it makes me picture three New York comics like…Rob Reiner et al, playing the three wise men. Which in turn, kind of makes me giggle, but doesn’t really seem appropriate, especially if they are trying to tell the story seriously.

Leave a Reply


About Cinema Hype

A blog about all things film: the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly. Check us out for news, reviews, haikus, and also other things that don't rhyme, like movie quotations, polls, and commentary. And we won't throw popcorn at you or kick your seat.

Cinema Hype Author(s)

Entertainment & Music Channel Posts

  • Liveblogging the Oscars: Act III
    Okay, we're in it for the long haul, gang. Not much longer now. Awww, I kind of like the In Memoriam montage. And I like Queen Latifah. I feel like these two things make some kind of a weird [...]
  • Liveblogging the Oscars: Act II
    Jessica Biel, why are you telling me about the scientific Oscars? Isn't this sort of akin to the time Denise Richards played a nuclear scientist in that really bad James Bond movie? I...think [...]
  • Liveblogging the Oscars: Act I
    Well, here we are. The Superbowl of the film year, only with more sequins and fewer beer commercials. Are we excited yet? This year, in an attempt to counteract the downward ratings spiral [...]
  • Steve Irwin's Birthday
    On this date in 1962, Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin was born -- no doubt in little tan shorts. I have no idea how he got the nickname "Crocodile Hunter" as he didn't actually kill the crocs he [...]
  • Review: Pride and Glory
    OK, so I am a HUGE fan of cop dramas for some reason. I don't really know what the attraction is but if there are cops, I'm there. So as soon as I saw the badge in the previews for this movie I knew [...]
  • Greatest Rock Song?
    Of all the classics coming from the vault we call "Rock-n-Roll", ya can't get any more genuine than Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone. The song was crowned by (of all places) Rolling Stone magazine [...]
  • INXS Loses Fortune
    It was the ultimate in rags-to-riches stories for the new INXS lead singer, J. D. Fortune. He rose from living in his car to superstardom as their new vocalist on the VH1 reality TV show ‘Rockstar: [...]
  • Crop Circles Are Pretty
    The argument over the origin of crop circles is still going on, despite many human artists coming forward and showing how they did it. Some simple crop circles do seem to be made by the wind. Many [...]
  • Judd Apatow's "Funny People" Movie Trailer w/ Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan is Another Winner!
    Judd Apatow has been behind some of the most real to life and hilariously over the top comedies of the past few years; "Knocked Up", "40 Year Old Virgin", "Superbad", "Pineapple Express", [...]
  • Robin Thicke's "Sweetest Love" Music Video is Sexy
    I am a huge fan of Robin Thicke and his soothing R&B style. Not only is he a major dream boat but he has the voice to back it up. I would even say that he has bigger an dbetter singing chops [...]

Hot Off The Press


Warning: Unknown: write failed: No space left on device (28) in Unknown on line 0

Warning: Unknown: Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct () in Unknown on line 0