Cinema review: The Nativity Story(2004)

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I enjoyed Keisha Castle-Hughes in Whale Rider and I enjoyed her presentation as the virgin Mary, Theotokos, in The Nativity Story. Not only was the movie well acted but also lushly filmed. The best part of the movie was the focus on the all the earthly, human issues surrounding the pregnancy of a betrothed adolescent of excellent reputation and her honorable husband-to-be and the political issues of Deliverer-expectation during the reign of a homicidal paranoid despot. Theology is not delved into. The movie has no qualm with taking as truth the appearance of angelic messengers and prophetic dreams, which is good. The timeline is compressed, as happens in most movies, for the sake of keeping the story moving along. It assumes a Protestant back story, Joseph is not a widower with children from the first marriage. My only complaint is the appearance to the shepherds did not include a heavenly choir. It's a great movie to complement your preparation for Christmas.

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