The Nativity Story (2006)

Starring: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Shaun Toub, Ciarán Hinds, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Stanley Townsend

Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Genre: Drama, Family, Religious

Rating: C+

Despite the fact that I've never really been religious, I've always enjoyed religious movies.  I might not believe that the story actually happened, but I've never found that it's stopped me from enjoying the story itself - much like how I enjoy Harry Potter without believing that Hogwarts exists.

The Nativity Story tells the story of Mary (Castle-Hughes), a young girl who has been told by God that she will become pregnant with His child, who will be named Jesus.  Mary is betrothed to Joseph (Isaac), and through the course of the story the two must struggle with what Mary's pregnancy means for each of them and the world around them.  Also dealing with such a struggle is King Herod (Hinds), who has learned of a prophecy predicting that a man will emerge as King of the Jews - a title which Herod thinks is rightfully his.  Herod is willing to go to great lengths in order to ensure that the prophecy is not fulfilled, and these lengths in turn influence the struggles of Mary and Joseph, the parents (in a manner) of the prophesied man.

This is not an original take on the story, and as such I think it really suffers.  The story that it's telling is one that we've heard many, many times before and thus this movie can be a bit dull.  The acting isn't stellar either, asides from Keisha Castle-Hughes and Oscar Isaac everyone's performance is a bit forgettable.  There's nothing really amazing about this movie - which in itself is sad, given as it's about Jesus.

Where Nativity does do well is in the depiction of the relationship between Joseph and Mary.  I think my favourite part about this entire film was Joseph and seeing him coming to terms with what his life has become.  At one point, Joseph says to Mary "I wonder if I will even be able to teach him anything," and in a single sentence surmises much of the struggle that he's been going through throughout this movie - the actual him having to come to terms with the fact that his wife is pregnant with the child of someone else is dealt with rather quickly.  I love this sentence and I really loved how you can see Joseph's struggle throughout, and in a way relate to it a lot more than Mary's struggle.  As weird as it sounds, the hero of this piece for me was Joseph, not Mary or her unborn child.