A family-friendly Christmas pageant, a Christmas crèche brought to theatrical life.
The Nativity Story (2006)
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Reviews Counted:125
Fresh:47
Rotten:78
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: The Nativity Story is a dull retelling of a well-worn tale with the look and feel of a high-school production.
Theatrical Release:08-12-2006
Synopsis: A cinematic journey into the heart of history's greatest story, The Nativity Story is poised to come to the big screen for the first time in a major motion picture event. New Line Cinema's The... A cinematic journey into the heart of history's greatest story, The Nativity Story is poised to come to the big screen for the first time in a major motion picture event. New Line Cinema's The Nativity Story chronicles the arduous journey of two people, Mary and Joseph, a miraculous pregnancy, and the history-defining birth of Jesus. The dramatic and compelling film traces the perilous journey of a young couple who must travel from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem, Joseph's ancestral home, to register for a census ordered by King Herod. It is a journey of over 100 miles, through treacherous terrain, made much more difficult by the fact that Mary is nine months pregnant. A New Line Cinema Presentation of a Temple Hill Production, The Nativity Story stars Academy Award® nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) as Mary, Oscar Isaac (upcoming Guerrilla) as Joseph and Academy Award® nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Sand and Fog) as Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. The international cast also includes Hiam Abbass (Munich, Paradise Now), Shaun Toub (Crash), Alexander Siddig (Syrianna), Nadim Sawalha (Syrianna), Eriq Ebouaney, Stefan Kalipha, Said Amadis, Stanley Townsend and Ciarán Hinds (Munich). The film is directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) from a screenplay written by Mike Rich (The Rookie, Finding Forrester). The producers are Wyck Godfrey (I, Robot) and Marty Bowen.The executive producers are Toby Emmerich, Cale Boyter, Tim Van Rellim, Mike Rich and Catherine Hardwicke. The co-executive producers are Judd Funk and Michael Disco. The film also features an outstanding production team which includes cinematographer Elliot Davis (White Oleander, I Am Sam, Out of Sight), Production Designer Stefano Maria Ortolani (Art Director on Gangs of New York and The Talented Mr. Ripley), Film Editors Robert K. Lambert, A.C.E. (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, Ask the Dust) and Stuart Levy, A.C.E (Any Given Sunday, Jesus' Son), Costume Designer Maurizio Millenotti (The Passion of the Christ, Tristan and Isolde, Immortal Beloved) and composer Mychael Danna (Little Miss Sunshine, Capote, The Ice Storm). New Line Cinema will release The Nativity Story (rated PG by the M.P.A.A. for "some violent content") in theaters nationwide on December 1st, 2006. -- © New Line Cinema [More]
Starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Eriq Ebouaney, Ciaran Hinds
Starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Eriq Ebouaney, Ciaran Hinds, Alexander Siddig, Shaun Toub, Tim Van Rellim, Oscar Isaac, Stanley Townsend, Star, Stefan Kalipha, Farida Ouchani, Alessando Giugglioli, Said Amadis
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Producer: Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey
Composer: Mychael Danna
Studio: New Line Cinema
Reviews for The Nativity Story
It avoids Hallmark greeting-card slickness and Cecil B. DeMille razzmatazz, but replaces them with a plodding earnestness that leaves it largely inoffensive but rather dull.
while the subject matter remains fascinating, the storytelling in director Catherine Hardwicke's film leaves much to be desired. ... reverent almost to a fault, yet its inspirational value is not particularly high.
Devout Christians are invited to ignore the reviews and enjoy the film. Non-Christians and skeptics ought to be looking elsewhere.
One of the greatest stories ever told has become one of the year's worst movies.
Slavishly reverent, it is accidentally hilarious in its earnestness -- and in its sincere attempts at a touch of humor; it will please believers who don't want their faith tested in the least...
It's a 'nice' movie, good for Christian families who want to attend a nativity pageant without having to stand outside in the cold.
Excels when focused on Mary and Joseph, but The Three Wise Men come off more like The Three Stooges.
Newcomer Oliver Isaac effectively conveys tenderness, doubt, courage, and transcendence as Joseph.
A thunderously boring film so circumscribed in scope and crippled in execution that it's destined to be a minor hit.
The Nativity Story is no whitewashed Christmas pageant, but it's no masterpiece either.
Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) makes an appropriately soulful Mary, and the movie's most engaging scenes involve her mortified parents and mystified husband, Joseph (Oscar Isaac), trying to come to terms with her miraculous pregnancy.
At a time when secular celebrations, including most films, have redefined the holiday as a meaningless and generic act of consumerism, The Nativity Story reclaims its roots as a story of sacrifice and celebration.
This is not a chance to 'experience the most timeless of stories as you've never seen it before' but just the opposite: an opportunity, for those who want it, to encounter this story exactly the way it's almost always been told.
The best of intentions and a 2,000-year-old heartbreaker of a story are not enough to make a compelling film. You need a point of view and something to say.
... The Nativity Story sticks to the familiar details of the narrative and dramatizes them with sincerity and good taste.
The Nativity Story becomes the anti-Passion, a movie that makes a statement against violence rather than exploiting it.
This drab exercise in glum piety slumps where it should soar, sapping the story of its mystery and transcendence with an overriding sense of literality.
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