Nativity Story, The

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Mike Rich

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 1, 2006
DVD: March 20, 2007

Running Time: 101 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG for some violent content

Starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass, Shaun Toub, Ciarán Hinds, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Stanley Townsend, and Alexander Siddig

The Nativity Story chronicles the arduous journey of two people, Mary and Joseph, a miraculous pregnancy, and the history-defining birth of Jesus. (New Line Cinema)

Also On Metacritic

FILM: Lords of Dogtown Thirteen

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What The Critics Said

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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Brendan gave it a5:
With good scenery, good costumes and a classic story it had everything right but was a little below par. The Nativity Story had some dramatic scenes but it missed that unexplained edge that makes you feel for the characters. One reason for this though was that for one reason or another Mary didn't show any emotion. You waited for her to be strong, cry, smile something but no, a frown never left here face and it was almost frustrating. This and other things didn't help the story move along and in the end it very much tilted to the boring side. Someone who is very religious however may find it to be remarkable and breathtaking.

Eric C. gave it a1:
If you really must watch a wildly boring religious drama, atleast make it one of the classics like Ben Hur, which used influential techniques in film making (this movie does nothing new or remotely impressive). This is just ridiculous. Apparently since millions wanted to watch Jesus die for a couple of hours, they also wanted to watch his beginning for another grueling couple of hours. But while the Passion was popular for a while before becoming a joke, this one has been a joke from the beginning. And rightly so. The film makers used promising actors and religion as Oscar bate, but no one was biting. I hope to become a film maker, and I know that there are right ways to handle religion and wrong ways (sorry if I sound abnoxious). So Jared B, if you want to know how no one except for the super christians have been giving this a good review, there's my reason why.And anonymous guy, historically accurate might be the wrong word for a movie based on different stories from a book, which disagree with each other on major points (lets just pretend not to notice that, and yes, I have read the Bible, so I'm not talking out my butt). March on christian soldiers and batter my review if you want. This movie sucks, and I'm sorry your strongly biased eyes keep you from seeing that.

Jerry A. gave it a3:
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.

Mark Bayer gave it an8:
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!

Robert B. gave it a9:
Took the family to see this movie right before Christmas. What an absolutely wonderful rendition of the nativity story! The cinematography alone is worth going to see this flic! Once again the critics are panning a religious movie because it's popular to do so.

Chad S. gave it a7:
"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.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
I love Christ and it was amazing to get a historically accurate view of the life and times of Mary and Joseph. Joseph exemplifies what men should be to their families and to their wives. I agree that it missed something though... there was no passion.

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