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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
B Rated PG 101 min.
In Bible stories, the relationships between people are almost as important as their relationship to God. The actors in this story explore their relationships with one another, however brief their interaction. Every role, including the cameos, was played well, making this one of the best movies about the birth of Christ to date. I liked the gentle humor and the grittiness of daily life. The story itself is an amalgam of the two stories of Christ’s birth in the New Testament from Matthew and Luke.
The movie opens with the slaughter of innocents, as Herod’s soldiers kill any child less than two years. The cruel King Herod (Ciarán Hinds) fears a rumored prophecy about a coming king as a threat to his rule. At first, he seeks “a man of power” who may usurp him, but later learns that it is a child he must watch for. From these acts of inhumanity we flash back to the events the year before.
We expect to see Mary or Joseph, but the story picks up with Zechariah (Stanley Townsend) and Elizabeth (Shohreh Aghdashloo). In the temple, Zechariah is given a message from God: his wife will bear a child. He does not believe the message because his wife is older and is struck dumb for the duration of her pregnancy. Elizabeth, of course, will bear John the Baptist.
We pick up with Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes), an ordinary girl, but one with a good heart and a sense of ethics. It was apparent that a great deal of effort had gone into making the village life authentic. After Mary finds that she is betrothed to Joseph (Oscar Isaac), a man she hardly knows, she runs to the well. There she helps a woman, who is burdened by a child, draw water from the well. Then Mary watches as children scamper by. In that moment, Mary straddles two worlds, the world of a woman and the world of a child. She looks back at her too short childhood with regret and looks ahead to her duties as woman with trepidation.
Matters are further complicated by an angel who comes to her, announcing that she will bear the son of God. She accepts the news but does not tell her parents or Joseph. Instead, she goes away to her cousin Elizabeth’s. The angel had told her that Elizabeth would also be expecting a baby as a result of God’s intervention.
By the time Mary returns to her village from her extended visit with Elizabeth, her pregnancy is obvious. She tells her parents and Joseph of her vision and faces the very real possibility she may be stoned to death if Joseph publicly accuses her of infidelity. Joseph and her parents are dubious, but Joseph is converted when he has a dream the following night. He accepts Mary as his wife, despite the social stigma. Villagers, who were all smiles before, shun the couple.
When Herod sends out the census decree from Rome, both Mary and Joseph are eager to travel away from the disapproving stares back to Joseph’s birth home of Bethlehem. Mary will soon give birth and she rides on the family mule as Joseph leads. As they journey, Mary begins to love and admire this man.
Meanwhile, in Persia, the Magi or the Three Wise Men are following scholarly works that tell of the king of kings and have charted the stars to find the geographical location of the birth of Christ. As they travel they are invited to sup by King Herod, who tells them he wishes to worship the child-king, and asks that the three report His location when they again travel through his city. Fortunately, they’re not called “wise men” for nothing, and sense that Herod is being deceptive.
I loved the moment of connection between Mary and the old shepherd (Ted Rusoff) as she and Joseph warm themselves at his fire. He speaks of his belief in “gifts,” that everyone has a purpose given by God.
The couple reaches Bethlehem just as Mary goes into labor. They end up in a stone stable because they cannot find other shelter quickly enough. Mary has the child, and they are illuminated by the star shining down, as the shepherds and the Magi gather to honor the Holy Child. We end where the movie begins: with the slaughter of children and the escape of Mary and Joseph.
On November 26th The Nativity Story was the first film movie to première at the Vatican. About 7,000 people attended the première and the proceeds will be going to the village of Mughar, which is populated by both Christians and Muslims and is just twenty-five miles from Nazareth, where Jesus spent his childhood. Keisha Castle-Hughes, who plays Mary in the film, missed the Vatican première because she is 16, pregnant and unmarried. Reportedly, the Pope missed the première because he was embarrassed about the situation.
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