Cinema Hype

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.