Score: 7.0 (out of 10)
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Distributor: New Line Cinema
MPAA Rating: PG
It's been a long wait to see this, a full-length feature on the Christmas story. Having seen it, I'm a bit disappointed. There isn't anything terribly wrong with the film, per se. Casting is great, with fine performances by Keisha Castle-Hughes and Oscar Isaac as the young holy couple. For the most part, the storyline is Biblically accurate. It just feels, though, that something, or some things, are missing that could have made this a more powerful, gripping drama on the coming of God in the flesh into our world.
To begin, many of the film's elements just feel trite. Undoubtedly, it's no simple task to present the Nativity story to an American audience in a fresh way, but a good place to start is to avoid conventional (and not necessarily Biblical) representations: the formal speaking manners, Mary's blue robe, mean Roman soldiers, names for the three wise men, etc. Other adjusted elements, like only one angel instead of a whole host appearing to the shepherds and the wise men deciding to pass by Herod on the way home based on a voluntary decision rather than a message in a dream, only subtract rather than add to the film.
The film's pacing is steady and slow throughout, with basically no suspense anywhere. Various moments of pathos, e.g. the wise men's facial expressions when encountering the baby Jesus, seem like they are taken straight from The Lord of the Rings (also from New Line Cinema). Sadly, the cinematic excitement part was not taken from that Oscar-winning trilogy.
Still, it's encouraging to see Hollywood coming out with more Biblical films like this one. We can only pray for more attempts to present Jesus as both God and man to moviegoers in the future.
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