Movie Reviews
Every Christmas season garners the surfacing of all those Christmas albums designated for that specific time of the year. (It’s pretty much a sin to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving and after New Year’s Day.) I’ve been grateful to have heard countless tellings and retellings of the Christmas story both from Luke 2 and from the different points of view of recording artists who’ve been kind enough to rebirth Jesus (pun intended) from different perspectives.
Despite all this, “The Nativity Story” is a massive success in that it humanizes Mary, Joseph, and the wise men – yes – but that it also humanizes Herod. Director Catherine Hardwicke is not one to pass over (no pun intended) the uncomfortable aspects of this part of history. For instance, how easy is it to forget that Mary would have only been around 15-years-old at the time of her pregnancy? Not to mention her recent betrothal to Joseph, which meant (aside from consummation) she was to act just as she would if they were married. This also meant – duh – that Joseph was the only man in her life.
There is a scene in “The Nativity Story” in which Mary returns to Nazareth after living with her aunt and uncle for a few months. At the point of her return, she is well enough into her pregnancy that the baby is showing. Joseph is ecstatic to see her, until he sees that she is, without a doubt, pregnant. His disappointment is radiantly evident; a girl as loyal and godly would never do something like that. By law, he could have her stoned in the streets. He remains “righteous” and decides to divorce her in secret, but before he can do so, he sees in a dream what he must do.
You’d have to be Muhammad to not know the general story of Christ’s birth. It’s not as though “The Nativity Story” is attempting to tell a new story, or to be an alternative version of the story (“Last Temptation of Christ,” anyone?). It exists as an historical piece; the type of well-made, thoughtful historical film that puts granted portions of the story under the magnifying glass for us all to see more clearly.
“The Nativity Story” is rated PG. Perhaps my only complaint about the film is that very thing. The filmmakers have made a film suitable for an entire family to see (adults will appreciate the sincerity, children will connect with the childlike aspects of Mary), but I fear than in appropriating the content, they’ve sacrificed a larger, darker, more in-depth movie. The stakes are high in “The Nativity Story.” They were probably higher in reality.
But I admire Hardwicke for her courage to film “The Nativity Story” in her own striking way. She is a director with a lot of tasteful style, but it’s the type of style unaccounted for in historical films. Here, Hardwicke is demonstrating – as many legendary directors have – that style transcends subject. You won’t find too many films resembling the look of “The Nativity Story.”
And I praise the film for its guts. It would be so easy to make this into the sappy, manufactured nativity we’re so familiar with during Christmas. In great stead, Hardwicke and her crew have constructed a film of humbling empathy. It reminds us of the importance of faith and the very human need to love. *** ˝