1. ellab

   10

   Grace is a quiet poetry that Catherine Hardwicke puts into pictures. The surprise is in the tremendously nuanced portrayals by Castle-Hughes and Issac (Mary and Joseph). To portray holier-than-thou icons with humanity and vulnerability is a brave and remarkable choice. Perhaps bolder than the Passion, where doubt is absent and the cinematic draw of epic violence over the emotional accessibility of the every-man leap of faith that we forget that we are all capable of each day in our choices of who we love, how we parent, how we choose to conduct ourselves each day. Kudos to the filmmakers for not selling out for a Hollywood high-octane version of a story that has its grace and its power in the daring of humble, real people with humor and fear to make a choice based on their faith, and not on glory. I hope that the subtlety of what a powerful choice the respect for the characters bravery and not cinematic spectacle is not lost on the audience. In my afternoon screening, I saw men and women look to the screen with tears in their eyes, and I hope the film inspires many to trust the quiet srength of the individual that is all but lost in our lives barraged with violence and information. It is an island of peace and hope in an ocean of self-doubt and self-obsession. See for yourself.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
2. MarkBayer

   8

   Filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke's relentlessly supercharged, passionate work on Thirteen, the downbeat but compelling story of a teenager's drug- and peer-pressure-fueled downward spiral, not only prevented it from potentially becoming this generation's answer to Reefer Madness but made it the most excitingly directed film of 2003. Unfortunately, Hardwicke then tried to repeat the jump-cut magic in 2005's Lords of Dogtown; the result was an instantly outdated disaster which at best made hundreds of moviegoers want to e-mail 1970s skateboarding wunderkind Stacy Peralta suggesting that he quit dwelling in the past and get a life already. Clearly Hardwicke needed to make a stylistic change, and I suspect that she took on The Nativity Story partially as a professional challenge: how could she tell the simplest, best-known--and to many, many people, the greatest--story of all time, employing the restraint it demands and yet still making it compelling? Very successfully, it turns out: Hardwicke's retelling of the birth of Jesus Christ isn't flashy at all, but it's extremely enjoyable, and all her moves are right on the money: her production designer's eye for the visual and dramatic value of rocky terrain, which makes this a consistently terrific-looking film (especially given its mid-size budget); her charming and tasteful use of the Three Wise Men as light comic relief, and especially her acknowledgement of what over half the globe already knows: that Jesus' earthly parents (and fellow townspeople) had complexions that were somewhat darker than the color of a piece of Bazooka bubble gum. And given that we all know how the story ends, it's truly surprising how much suspense and dramatic tension Hardwicke brings to its climax: when you realize the urgency with which Mary and Joseph needed to find an inn, a stable or someplace else so that Mary could not only have the baby but HAVE! THE! BABY! NOW!! you know that this is a movie that not only had to have been made by a woman, but by a mom. All of this should've made The Nativity Story a sure thing for believer, neophyte and secularist moviegoers alike, so why did it disappoint at the box office? My guess is that New Line was too limited in its marketing approach, relying too heavily on a Karl Rove "go for your base" strategy rather than employing Howard Dean's recently triumphant "50 states" one. Leaving aside those cheesy $1.98 mini-epics dealing with the end of this world and the beginning of the next one that conservative reviewers are always trying to convince us ended up more in the black than Star Wars did, the reality is that faith-based movie hits are born, not made. The two unqualified smashes of this relatively new genre over the last few years did well because, like The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur in earlier generations, they skewed across the board: Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ benefited from lots of pre-release buzz owing to its sensationalistic subject matter and controversial treatment, while Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, while not ignoring the Christian subtext, was first and foremost an engaging, skillfully told adaptation of a beloved children's classic. At least I'd rather buy into that theory than believe that droves of churchgoers stayed away from Nativity because its Mary, Whale Rider's Keisha Castle-Hughes, identified a little too closely for some tastes to her role by getting pregnant at a very tender age. If that indeed was the case, then these individuals need to remind themselves of something that The Nativity Story's subject grew up to say about trying to take the speck out of someone else's eye when you've already got a beam in your own!… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
3. ChadS.

   7

   "The Nativity Story" surprised me, perhaps even moved me. At its core is the story of a teenage girl steadfastly trying to keep her honor against a wave of admonishment by her family. The casting of Keisha Castle-Hughes is key because she still looks like a young child. From their viewpoint, you can understand their confusion and heartbreak at the thought of her laying down with a man. And poor Joseph(Oscar Issac), talk about your bizarre love triangles. At a bazaar, en route to Bethelehem, a vendor rhapsodizes about the joy of seeing your face in a developing one. You can almost literally see the air go out of Joseph; his defeated countenance is priceless, and the consoling hand that Mary offers is a beautiful grace note(now, now, there, there, I'm with you, Joseph, not God). The journey of the three wisemen, and the tyranny of King Herod's rule are necessary evils, essential subplots to keep the Bible-thumpers happy, but the story of Mary and Joseph is for everybody.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
4. JerryA.

   3

   What a bad movie!!! the bad acting was so evident, they needed to hire better actors, and maybe than i would only raise my grade to a 4, because this is about the 100th time another christmas movie about Jesus has come out.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 1 users said Yes.

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