Considering the focus of the Righteous Recommendations site you might have been expecting to find more specifically religious movies than some of the outlandish horror movies I've covered. Still, I do get excited about a good scripture-based movie. I rushed out to see "Passion of the Christ" even though I have yet to see "Fireproof."

 

I was excited to see the birth of Christ realized on the big screen in "The Nativity Story" partially because I have so few movies to watch around the Christmas season suitable for the less twisted minds of my family. Since I don't often do Santa Claus movies, not the traditional ones at least, I felt like a movie about the birth of Jesus would finally be one I would be glad to own, view, and share. Sadly I have to write to tell you how thoroughly unimpressed I am with it.

 

If you remember your Biblical history you know that an angel appeared to Elizabeth and her husband announcing the coming of John the Baptist, the angel appeared to Mary announcing her virgin conception then to her fretting future husband to tell him Mary hadn’t been messing around on him, the expecting couple journeyed to Bethlehem for the census, Jesus was born in a stable, angels sang for shepherds who came to bear witness to the birth, wise men journeyed bearing gifts, Herod killed all the male infants in his kingdom, and Joseph took his family to Egypt to escape the slaughter.

 

The Bible itself is more like a summary of these events than a narrative. To turn these events into a story fit for the screen some creative license has to be taken. There are a lot of Christians that disagree with such a thing. I myself see no problem with presenting these stories of faith in today’s most popular medium, the silver screen, as long as the intent of the original story stays intact.

 

I mean does the Bible ever mention a little drummer boy? No, yet his story is a popular Christmas tune. People don't have a problem with it because it is a story of reverence to baby Jesus, so I don't have a problem with a narrative filling in the gaps of a biblical story as long as the elements that are scriptural get their proper reverence (not trying to say Jesus really had a secret human father, for example).

 

"The Nativity Story" does keep those scriptural points I mentioned above faithfully intact. Unfortunately the presentation of them is generally not inspiring, and the bridging material added to create a more cohesive narrative is often dull. The writers attempt to create tension by opening with the slaughter of the babies then jumping back to the prophecy of John and working forward from there. That was probably the best move possible as there isn’t a whole lot of screen-friendly antagonism in the Christmas story.

 

Any benefit from bringing Herod more to the forefront to be the primary antagonist in a traditionally narrative sense is lost in the lack of luster in the rest of the experience. To set up the context of the mass murder the movie shows King Herod’s extreme taxes and ruthless rule. Rather than being effective, though, it feels forced. “We can't just have this guy do something bad, we've got to make him into a true villain thru and thru without any subtly.” That's what the script says to me. It is true that Herod is known for committing all sorts of atrocities, I just don't feel like the movie establishes the character as well as it could.

 

The story then sets up the census as a way for Herod to specifically weed out the so-called king he’s been hearing about in the prophecies floating around. Since they are looking for a man of power Mary being forced to have her labor in a stable serves to put them under the royal radar. This is actually an interesting approach since it offers an easy-to-grasp reason for why God would send them to such a humble place for the birth of Christ instead of it being just a random happenstance, although I’m pretty sure it’s inaccurate. I have heard that some preachers do actually suggest this notion as a possible motivation for this particular census, but my own personal research turned up the suggestion of at least 3 ancient census, gathered from ancient documents including extra-biblical accounts, not limited to Herod, which indicates that this may very well have just been one of multiple reoccurring census. The truth is, though, that we don't know with much certainty one way or another.

 

Another concept to create tension is with Mary not being happy about being betrothed to Joseph. There’s another man she wants initially. I guess this helps sow the seeds of doubt about her fidelity when she swears she isn’t pregnant by a human man (as if any help were needed). Unlike the Herod plot point, this isn’t done as well as it might have been and comes off feeling more like something used to extend the story than like an essential plot development.

 

I think the biggest problem I have with the early part of the story is that it focuses on the added tensions such as showing Mary flirting with the man she really wants and the dealings of the family while doing nothing to establish any sort of spiritual side to her. We go from a normal life any woman might lead to talking to angels and conceiving the messiah. Maybe they were trying not to be too similar to One Night With the King (a movie that is everything Nativity Story is not)?

 

I think the lack of spiritual setup could have been overcome by an awe-inspiring angelic visit. I’m guessing lack of budget prevented this. Even if they purposefully wanted to remain subtle with the angelic visits the shepherds' scene with the heavenly choir should have been the pinnacle of the movie visually. It’s more likely to put you to sleep than inspire you, though.

 

I did enjoy the sub-plot of the wise men. From their deducing the special birth to their journey to their dealings with Herod they were probably the most interesting part of the story from a cinematic perspective except for the evil king himself.

 

An aspect that doesn’t help the presentation is the weak acting. Joseph is pretty good, but others are barely decent at best. I wouldn’t go so far as to say anyone stinks out loud, but there isn’t really anyone that pulls me into their role. That sure doesn’t do much to help the already weak scenes.