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Title: The Nativity Story
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
There are scenes of mild violence and alcholal abuse, but otherwise parents have nothing to worry about. Recommended for ages 7 and up. |
The story of Christ's birth is one of the most well known stories of all time. People who don't read the Bible can recite the story word-for-word, and there are non-Christians who enjoy the warm feeling the story provides them. In this sense it sounds like "The Nativity Story" is critic proof, a movie that would bother you only if you were an old scrooge. For this reason I'm not going to be very popular with many people, but one of the perks to writing a review for a movie about the birth of Christ is that I don't have to waste time going over the storyline. So let's just cut to the chase and look at what works in this movie and what doesn't.
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WHAT WORKS: The acting is very good. Despite some occasional fake sounding accents, the actors all look and sound the parts they are playing. Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes gives us a very sympathetic Mary, and Oscar Isaac is particularly good as Joseph, the man who has doubts about marrying Mary when she is found to be pregnant and he is not the father.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The characters don't come off as full human beings most of the time. Mary is a rebel at the beginning of the movie, but ten minutes later loses her rebellious ways. King Hared feels threatened by the idea of Jesus being born, but aside from the political reasons there is very little reason given for his extreme fear of the baby. The wise men are shown as comic relief, and therefor don't come off as entirely believable. The most fleshed out character is Joseph, and come half time his sole job goes from being protective husband to being the guy who pulls Mary on the donkey.
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WHAT WORKS: The dessert scenes are beautiful to look at, and the final nativity scene is a work of art.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Most of the cinematography is sloppy and lazy, and with some of the building shots you get the feeling that if the camera moved just an inch to the left, you'd see the set.
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WHAT WORKS: The movie tells the story of Christ's birth with little to no surprises.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The movie tells the story of Christ's birth with little to no surprises.
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Yes, as strange as it sounds, that fact that this is a straight forward movie about the birth of Christ is one of the movies biggest cons. Some of you may ask, "Well gee, what's what with that?" Well, technically there is nothing wrong with that. When you make a movie about a Bible story, particularly one about Jesus, you don't want to mess with it too much, or else you run the risk of changing the meaning of the story. The problem is, like I said before, this is a very popular story. Everyone already knows it word-for-word, and very few people want to sit through something that will tell them something they already know. It either has to dig deeper, or it has to make the same story VERY spectacularly!
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Since "The Nativity Story" is being made on a low budget, we shouldn't expect too much flash. But what about heart? Why can't the movie seem more compelling then it really is? At a scant 80 minutes, everything happens at a record pace. A couple of conflicts pop up, but all are resolved quickly and neatly, with no real feeling of accomplishment. Now we all know the reason this movie was made. It was made because of a miracle. More specifically, it was made in response to the $330 something million dollars "The Passion of the Christ" made. But let's stop and ask ourselves something: Why DID "The Passion of the Christ" make so much money?!
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Was it because of flash? The story? It certainly didn't make money because anyone was entertained by the movie. No, the reason "The Passion of the Christ" became such a phenomenon was because that movie made people think about the crucifiction of Jesus Christ in ways they never thought of before. Certainly almost everyone knew the story of Jesus dying for our sins, but many people were never challenged by the story before. "The Passion of the Christ" challenged people, got people thinking, praying, and talking. "The Nativity Story" on the other hand is not challenging. It brings no discussions to the table, it does not challenge anyone, and it doesn't shed any light (no pun intended) on why this story touches millions of people around the world.
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It just tells the story, gets it over with quick, and collects it's paycheck. It panders to the Christians in the world because the movie makers want their investment returned, and it does absolutely nothing for people who don't get what the big deal is behind the story in the first place. So while for Christians this is a good movie, what is the point of making something they would already love? "The Ten Commandments," "The Passion of the Christ," "Ben-Hur," "The Prince of Egypt," and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" were all Biblical movies that made minor changes to the story, but the theme and message were the same, all these movies shed some light as to why the stories were so influential, and no one complained.
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Why couldn't "The Nativity Story" have been one of those movies? As it is, it's a good movie for people who already love the story, but I find the simplicity of the movie to be disappointing. With this movie there was another chance to shed some light on why Jesus means so much to us, and the movie blew it. But hey, at least people who are already believers have a new movie to watch every year.
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