The Nativity Story, written by Mike Rich, and directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is the story of the conception to the birth of Jesus Christ. Set in the dessert of the Middle East, each character in the biblical story has an expansion of their side of the story.
Generally, The Nativity Story follows the biblical story in which we are all familiar. Mary gets pregnant, Joseph and Mary get married, they go to Bethlehem, the wise men come, Jesus is born and they flee. Even though it follows the blueprint of the classic story, it is primarily made up of midrash. Midrash, depending on the circles you run in, is a story that fills in the gaps, or enhances the stories in the bible. Many of the characters are in the bible but their stories were incomplete or could be expanded to fill in the movie. Most of the characters work in the movie but there are a few characters that are extraneous.
The film is beautifully shot, with rich colors and special attention to details in the frame. The setting feels like it was plucked out of the past. The costumes in this film give an authentic feel to the story. There is a perceptible attention to the little things in this movie.
A film about the birth of Christ and the center of a major world religion could easily have gone preachy, but much to the credit of Catherine Hardwicke, this film does not. God is mentioned several times but is not the main character in the story.
For the most part, the acting and the casting in this movie are great. Most of the actors look like they spring up from the Middle East, even if that isn't their region of origin, which lends credibility to this often-bleached story.
Joseph, played by Oscar Isaac, was a sweet, humorous and merciful character. Joseph gives balance to the movie. He is sweet when he should be angry, persistent when he should give up, and merciful when the average person would be vengeful. I believed Joseph's dedication to the baby and to God. Isaac played Joseph with emotional precision. Isaac avoids overacting in one of the most recognizable, well known characters in human history.
Mary, played by Keisha Castle-Hughes, gave a lackluster performance. Castle-Hughes does not act in this film. She has the same look on her face through the entire movie. Beautiful day picking berries, just found out you have an arranged marriage, angel comes to you and tells you that your pregnant with God's kid, starts to go into labor, three rich wise men give you gifts, nearly drown, just had the baby that will save the world from their sins, all merit the exact same expression: I'm so stoned I can hardly move. She looks as if she can't focus her eyes because she can't keep her mental focus on one thing long enough to complete the difficult and arduous task of expression. I guess God picked Mary to carry the burden of Jesus because of her monotone emotional state. Castle-Hughes needs to get off the Quaaludes and start acting.
The three wise men -- played by Nadim Sawalha, Eriq Ebouaney, Stefan Kalipha -- are rich, pampered men of faith who use science to find the Christ child and bring levity to the story. Their complaining, whining, insults for each other, and casual attitude made me laugh every time they were on the screen. They leave their lives of luxury to go on a trek that will take months with no guarantee of success. The wise men are motivated to make the journey by curiosity and sincere faith.
Finally, in the manger, after a trek that lasted for weeks, surrounded by animals, Jesus is born. The salvation of the world was born to an impoverished young Middle Eastern woman in the most humble of places. As if Reverend Jerry Falwell ordered up a personal miracle, the baby that would save the world was white as the driven snow. Is the American Christian's ego so fragile that they can't handle the fact that Jesus was not white? Bethlehem is in the Middle East. The people there are not white. It is completely xenophobic to cast the baby Jesus white. I cannot believe that even today, we still are so attached to the idea of a pasty faced Jesus that we can't get past the fact that Jesus was not white. If I had not seen the scene where Jesus was born, I wouldn't believe that he belonged to Mary.
The director took a cinematic AK47, loaded it, cocked it, pointed it downward and shot herself in the casting foot. Bravo Catherine, bravo. You had the opportunity to do the right thing and you didn't. You are a coward. Shame on you!
Unfortunately, I can't give my seal of approval to Hardwicke because she did such a poor job directing Mary. Mary has more face time than any other character in the story and her performance was so poor either the director didn't direct her properly or she didn't replace her when it was apparent that she couldn't act this part. Oh yeah, and she cast Jesus as white.
Until the manger scene, with the notable exception of Keisha Castle-Hughes's acting, I was enjoying The Nativity Story. If you don't mind the director's poor direction, ridiculous decision to be ethnically insulting and ridiculously outdated, then by all means, see this movie.
"The Nativity Story" opens December 1, 2006 and is rated PG. Children & Family, Drama. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Written by Mike Rich. Starring Alexander Siddig, Ciaran Hinds, Hiam Abbass, Keisha Castle Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Shohreh Aghdashloo.
