Posted on 12/08/2006 7:46:42 PM PST by sionnsar
The Nativity Story
Hollywood, at least, has declared a truce in the Christmas wars. The Nativity Story is a pious, reverent, if languorous, account of the birth of Jesus, culled from the gospels of Matthew and Luke, and has enjoyed generally good reviews from the mainstream media (if not the best opening-weekend box office).
The performances are dignified. The language is generic biblical-epic-speak, in which No Contraction Shall Pass My Lips, O Lord, Lest the Audience Think I Am Speaking English. The angels are suitably translucent. The Three Wise Men provide comic relief—and are very wise, indeed, as one of them greets the newly born Christ with, “God wrapped in human flesh!” thus presaging the high christology of the Gospel of John by a good ninety years.
Much attention has been paid to the portrayal of Mary. Keisha Castle-Hughes’ performance is sullen, even leaden, and resigned. Yet one must sympathize with any actress given the role of the teenage Mary. The Method is going to fail here, as will sense memory and the odd, querulous “What’s my motivation?” Even when the words of Scripture are spoken verbatim, they seem unceremoniously plopped into the middle of the dialogue, a kind of rote and contractually obligated product placement. This may be why Mel Gibson considered Aramaic for The Passion and Yucatec Maya for Apocalypto the best solutions to the problem of stilted language: With the possible exception of Fr. Mitch Pacwa, no one knows what is being said, and each audience member is free to supply his or her own inflection to the mental reading of the subtitles.
The Nativity Story does pull off one remarkable feat: You will leave the theater thinking more about Joseph (Oscar Isaac) than perhaps you ever have before. Joseph is a man of noble intentions, concerned with always doing the right thing, even as he makes his appearance in Mary’s life by encouraging a lie. A Roman tax collector has confiscated Mary’s father’s mule in lieu of payment. This mule is Joachim’s livelihood. Joseph buys the mule back from the Romans but tells Mary to tell Joachim that it was simply left behind, so as to spare Joachim’s pride. Here Joseph shows more concern for preserving the dignity of his future father-in-law than he will with preserving his own.
In significant ways it is Joseph who prefigures the life of his adopted son: He does not insist on his rights when it comes to Mary and her pregnancy. He does not apply the penalties of the law. Instead, he walks alongside her, offering her “cover,” sharing in the calumnies heaped on her. She assumes her “guilt” (although she has done nothing wrong). And all in the name of doing the will of the Father for the sake of the salvation of the world. Joseph adopts Jesus just as the Father adopts us though Jesus, his only begotten. It is Joseph who will also become another Moses, leading the Tabernacle and the Word from exile in Egypt to the land of prophetic promise (”He will be called a Nazarene”). Here he prefigures Jesus’ own Mosaic role as the ultimate lawgiver (albeit one who incarnates and fulfills perfectly that law so that all we must do—can do—is respond lovingly and gratefully). Joseph is a man of grace through and through.
Also striking is how the film illustrates the vast distances between people, literally and figuratively. The perilous, bone-achingly torturous paths one has to traverse just to get from Point A to Point B, from one village to another, never mind from one country to another are mind-boggling for those of us who whine about crowded subways and late buses.
And then there are the distances between the peoples themselves: between Jew and Gentile, between the “righteous” and the outcast, between Herod and his subjects, between Rome and Jerusalem, between the Temple priests and the people aching for absolution, liberation, and peace.
These vast distances are bridged finally not by warriors on horseback challenging Roman tyranny and Herodian decadence on their own terms but by a baby, born in a cave, who is Christ the Lord. It is in the precariousness of life that Life is reborn. It is on the precipice of death that Death is conquered. The vastness of the world will be reduced to the size of an infant, the Second Adam, through whom all of creation will be remade and who will, when lifted up, draw all men to himself.
Parents should be cautioned about bringing very small children to this film, however. There are scenes when Roman violence—images of crucified and hanged corpses—may prove too strong. We are reminded here how the Pax Romana was effected—through terror, and that there’s a shadow over the quaint nativity scene re-enacted under countless Christmas trees—the Massacre of the Innocents.
But, in the end, if you leave the theater with the declaration of Mary—”Be it done to me according to thy Word”—on your lips, then it will be the best ten bucks you have ever spent on anything. Ever.
I saw it too a week or so back. It was great and so realistic. I was the only one in the theater.
we saw it yesterday - in a crowd of about 6.
just another sign of the (end) times.
beautiful movie, and highly recommended. i'm buying it on home dvd a.s.a.p.
Same here. I was amazed at how honest the portrayls were and what a sweetheart Joseph was. The nightmare he had was amazing. The way they portrayed Herod Antipas and Antipater was also great. The costumes were so accurate for the time period and when they confiscated that poor girl it gave me the shudders.
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