CHRISTMAS GETS EQUAL TIME
THE NATIVITY STORY
Directed by
Catherine Hardwicke; written by Mike Rich; director of photography, Elliot
Davis; edited by Robert K. Lambert and Stuart Levy; music by Mychael Danna
With: Keisha Castle-Hughes (Mary); Oscar Isaac (Joseph); Hiam Abbass (Anna,
Mary’s Mother); Shaun Toub (Joaquim, Mary’s Father); Alexander Siddig (the
Archangel Gabriel); Nadim Sawalha (Melchior); Eriq Ebouaney (Balthasar);
Stefan Kalipha (Gaspar); Said Amadis (Tero); Stanley Townsend (Zechariah);
Ciarán Hinds (King Herod); and Shohreh Aghdashloo (Elizabeth). Rated PG.
Running time: 100 minutes
Reviewed by Joel
Johnson
1/2
Since Mel Gibson
had such a big hit with The Passion of the Christ about the events
described in the Gospels leading to the crucifixion of Jesus, could a film
telling about the birth of Jesus—the central event celebrated at
Christmas—be far behind? The Nativity Story is, of course, that film.
This is a familiar story for believers and likely fairly well known to many
doubters. Those with an alternate belief system such as Buddhism and
Hinduism and little familiarity with Western culture would likely be least
familiar with the birth of Jesus as described in the New Testament Gospels.
This story is, of
course, retold in thousands of churches via the annual church school
Christmas pageant. If you’ve seen these pageants, you will be familiar with
many of the key characters in this film. There is, of course, the young Mary
(Keisha Castle-Hughes) and a somewhat older Joseph (Oscar Isaac). The angel
Gabriel (Alexander Siddig) visits Mary, explaining to her that she “has
found favor with the Lord” and will give birth to God’s son. Joseph will
also need to have his own visitation. We will meet the three kings or wise
men—Melchior (Nadim Sawalha), Balthasar (Eriq Ebouaney), and Gaspar (Stefan
Kalipha)—as they study the heavens for a special sign and then begin a long
journey that will lead to Bethlehem. Despite their description as learned
and noble men, they provide the film with a modicum of comic relief. There
isn’t an innkeeper, per se, but there will be Bethlehem townspeople,
shepherds, and the animals. While the youngest Sunday school pupils have
traditionally been assigned the roles of being the lambs, sheep, and other
stable animals, these film roles will be filled by honest-to-God real
livestock.
The film does
include some aspects of the Biblical accounts that are seldom shown in a
church school pageant even when the relevant scripture passages may be read
aloud.
King Herod (Ciarán
Hinds) is the villain of the story. First, we see how Herod’s desire for
luxury and self-aggrandizement places a cruel burden on the backs of his
people. Then we see how Herod, a puppet king amenable to Rome, is obsessed
with the prophesies in scripture that herald a Messiah or a king who would
liberate the Jewish people. There was considerable anticipation for the
Messiah throughout Israel during this time. This was ably dramatized for
comic effect in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Since many were
actively looking for the Messiah, and some were actually claiming to be the
Messiah, it’s not entirely surprising that Herod would find threatening all
this anticipation for someone who would succeed him. The film includes an
exchange between Herod and his son Antipas (Alessandro Giuggioli) that shows
the grotesque lengths to which Herod had already gone to eliminate any
perceived threat to his power. The film does show scenes of Herod’s orders
to kill all male children under age two being carried out in a failed effort
to eliminate the Messiah. These scenes of the “slaughter of the innocents”
bookend the film, but these are very brief, intending to subtly evoke this
event rather than provide a vivid view of this horrible cruelty as in
Schindler’s List or The Passion of the Christ.
Likewise, Mary’s older cousin Elizabeth (Shohreh
Aghdashloo) doesn’t appear frequently in church school pageants. Mary lives
with this cousin and her husband Zechariah (Stanley Townsend) while
Elizabeth goes through a remarkable pregnancy to give birth to John the
Baptist. This is when Mary begins to understand what she will experience and
what adult relationships are like.
It is upon her
return from this sojourn with her cousin that the proceeding gathers some
energy since the village sees that despite the period of chaste betrothal,
Mary is with child. Joseph, her parents, and the rest of her village believe
the natural explanation for how a girl becomes pregnant is more accurate
than what Mary is telling them. Mary’s story is, as is often glibly
explained, the reason for the season—and this film. When we first meet her,
Mary is an ordinary teen almost indistinguishable from her girlfriends who
work beside her in the fields and flirt with their male peers. There is
nothing in the film that would support one of the more radical concepts
about Mary that became part of Catholic Mariology, the study of beliefs
about the venerated Virgin Mary. That is, not only did Mary give birth to
the immaculately conceived Jesus, but also she was herself immaculately
conceived. Protestant thinking has tended to ignore Mary, and portraying her
as a typical teen is easily consistent with that although the film is not
trying to take a sectarian position.
Joseph is
compassionate to Mary despite his evident disappointment but needs some
divine intervention to accept following through with the marriage. We don’t
usually spend much time considering Joseph’s predicament, but the film is
probably strongest in showing his trepidation and then courage in accepting
the pregnant Mary as his wife. There is a fabricated scene that helps to
cement their bond.
The film does an
excellent job in portraying life in ancient Israel and incorporates most of
the Gospel passages relevant to the nativity. The story is predictable, and
the filmmakers have chosen to tell the story in a realistic way that
minimizes spectacular visuals that might have been employed in a film about
a miraculous event. The actors are able to breathe some humanity into their
characters but not quite enough to lift the film from a pageant that
displays the events of a story to a drama where those events truly come to
life. In short, this is a Christmas pageant with great production values.
Christmas gets equal time but not an equally powerful film.
