"The Nativity Story" *** (out of ****)All through this Christmas season, I've been slipping in a few Christmas themed movie reviews. They have mostly been of a secular nature; "Holiday Inn", "It's A Wonderful Life", though that does have a certain religious aspect to it. But Christmas was originally intended as a religious holiday. You remember what religion is, don't you? It's that thing liberals want to keep out of schools (just kidding! I just like to make fun of liberals. Sorry).
Christmas was suppose to be a time when believers of Christ celebrate his birth. Somehow though over the years, that has become an after thought. Christmas in now a time for Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman and other secular symbols. And, while I must admit, my family has a Santa decoration hanging on the door, we still have not forgotten about the true meaning of Christmas. At midnight on Christmas Eve we will attend midnight mass. People need to remember the religious side of the holiday.
In 2006 when "The Nativity Story" was released, it came on the heels of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", which was released in 2004. Though Hollywood is predominantly a secular town, they are never one to pass up a buck. Thinking that religious movies may be all the rage, "The Nativity Story" was rushed into production to beat the competition. And in the process became the first film to premiere at the Vatican.
It didn't do the box-office the Gibson film did, in fact, it didn't even get the critical attention. On rottentomatoes.com the film scored 38% out of 123 reviews, 47 were positive while 76 were negative.
But don't let that stop you from watching this movie. "The Nativity Story" admittedly doesn't do anything special. The director, Catherine Hardwicke, wanted the film to be told as simply as possible and even attempted to tell it as realistically as possible. Having the characters work with tools from 2,000 years ago.
This however takes away some of the emotional impact the story has. While we all pretty much know the basic idea. The young Virgin Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is told by the angel Gabriel (Alexander Siddig) that she has been chosen to give birth to the son of God and his name will be Jesus. There are still elements which can be quite moving within the story.
Keisha Castle Hughes at the time had only appeared in one other movie, released in 2003, the charming "Whale Rider". For her performance she even managed to receive an Oscar nomination, making her the youngest person ever.
Catherine Hardwicke, had only directed one other film herself, the coming of age story "Thirteen" which made Evan Rachel Wood a star. Since this film Hardwicke has directed "Twilight" and "Lords of Dogtown". With the exception of "Dogtown", she seems most interested in making movies centered around young girls. If we include "Dogtown" into the mix, she has a youthful appeal.
The movie was written by Mike Rich. He scripted such films as Gus Van Sant's "Finding Forrester" and "Radio". He was quoted as saying "I tend to write stories about ordinary people who do extraordinary things." And what could be more extraordinary than giving birth to Jesus Christ!
The performances in "The Nativity Story" are pretty good across the board. Everyone seems to be giving the same kind of performance however. They are very subtle. No one is trying to ham it up. Everything about the movie is somber. Hardwicke does try to throw in some humor, with the depiction of the Three Wise Men (Nadim Sawalha, Eriq Ebouaney and Stefan Kalipha). Who argue the whole time on their journey.
"The Nativity Story" is not George Stevens' "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or "King of Kings". For that matter it is not even "The Passion of the Christ". Those movies, you could tell, wanted to be epics. "The Greatest Story Ever Told" for example was flooded with stars; Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Edward G. Robinson. When we think of Biblical films, some of us may think of those old De Mille movies of the silent era. But "The Nativity Story" is not a movie like that. In some ways I like that and in some ways I don't.
I appreciate Hardwicke's decision in the fact that nothing takes away from the story. The movie is only about telling us the story of Christ's birth. It is not about the acting or production design or music. I don't like the decision however, because those older films, while star-studded did inject lots of emotion, but kept with Jesus' teachings.
The reason I reviewed this modern film as oppose to an older film is because I fear in this day and age, most people don't like to watch older films. Plus I'm not sure how easy it is to find a copy of "The Greatest Story Ever Told" or "King of Kings". I doubt your local Blockbuster will have it. But, because this is a modern film, you should be able to find it easily.
Despite everything this is a very good movie to watch on Christmas and understand the true meaning of the holiday. It's important people understand what exactly it is they are celebrating.
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