Nativity! (2009)

Too much of everything

Fantastic!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Excellent but underrated film

Nativity! is a middling film which is partly improvised by the cast which is how writer/director Debbie Isitt works.Martin Freeman plays Paul Maddens a failed actor now an underachieving primary school teacher. His former girlfriend left him some years ago and made it big in Hollywood.Now Paul has been put in charge to direct the Nativity play and vies to outdo a rival school whose head teacher he knew at University and rather envies. Paul lies that Hollywood casting agent will come to see the Nativity play which escalates out of control thanks to the man-child classroom assistant Mr Poppy (Marc Wooton.)Paul ends up going to Hollywood to visit his ex (Ashley Jensen) and has to resort to get her to pull a few favours for him.In its favour Both Jensen and Freeman give a natural and charming performance which is more than the script (improvised or not) deserves. It is a silly plot and a film about the acting standards of a nativity play does not inspire me as someone who had to sit through a few as a father.Worse still Wooton's overacting as Mr Poppy had me wishing that a berserk driver would enter the film and run him over. Not sure how his character ever passed the criminal records checks in the first place.Still the film has become something of a regular Christmas film on television without the sickly syrup of the American Christmas films. The one-upmanship between the two school rivals keeps the story going.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS, NOTHING THAT WILL RUIN THE STORY THOUGH: We've seen this movie twice now and will most likely watch it again next year. We love the actors (who are THE very best part of the movie) and the locations and the lack of gungy language and that the children seemed like every day fabulous children and the reminder that people rise to the occasion when given the chance.We could have done without the raunchy dance moves. ") And we could have done without the skewed Mary and Joseph love story especially when acted out by children. Both were a bit cringe-worthy. So, you have to put aside respectful manners and history-according-to-the-Bible for a bit and just enjoy the rest which is loads of fun.Clarke Peters dancing at the end is the best. Wish I had a photo.

There's a great idea for a film lurking in Nativity. A semi-improvised comedy built around the premise of two rival drama teachers going head- to-head during Christmas play season, there's an absolute wealth of potential to be had here. Plus it has Martin Freeman doing that perpetually exasperated thing with lots of familiar faces from the British comedy scene, some genuinely likable young kids and a charming, Richard Curtis-vibe underpinning it. What could possibly go wrong?Well, somehow the pieces just don't come together. It's lacking in laughs or memorable dialogue and is filled with scenes that don't just stretch credibility, but rip it to pieces like the family cat getting into the Christmas presents. Teachers encourage mass brawls between two primary school classes, sneak kids into the delivery room at a maternity hospital and even abduct two ten year olds and fly them to California with no repercussions from the parents at all. Well they did bring them back, so I guess it's all okay. There's a chance for a rousing finale with the final production as well but it outstays its welcome for too long. And that's without mentioning Mark Wootton's infuriating teaching assistant Mr. Poppy, a passive- aggressive man-child more juvenile than the ankle biters he's supposed to be looking after. By the time he's dangling a child from a Cathedral spire it all becomes clear, this is more "Surviving Christmas" than "It's A Wonderful Life." Just play trivial pursuit with your nan again.

This movie is playing on Showtime, and I've been laid up in bed with nothing much to do but read, surf the web and watch TV, so thank god for Showtime!! This movie initially was something I avoided, since I usually really hate kid movies. But strike that; I learned that I really hated *American* kid movies; British kiddie films (and romcoms) are so much better and much more fun. Although Brit humour is right up front, these movies tend not to be dripping with the kind of bottomless cynicism and coy promotion of greedy materialism that lies at the heart of most American movies aimed at the rated G set.For example, in Nativity!, all the kids come from decidedly the underprivileged and underdog working classes, and their chief rival is a posh upper-class school. In an American film, the gold at the heart of the rainbow would have been literally that: gold. The kids would somehow end up fabulously rich at the end, and their poor, belabored working class parents would now able to buy them everything they could possibly want at Christmastime--the true American dream. In Nativity!, all they really want to do is put on a wicked good holiday show and maybe get their depressed teacher back with his girl. Christmas is not nearly as commercialized and monetized in Europe and the UK, and this aspect is very refreshing whilst watching a movie about the one season that American has utterly and completely ruined. I'm usually quite the grinch about our holiday season, but watching this movie made me happy that all the world is not American. (I'm waiting for someone to call me un-American and a Euro Socialist, hee hee) The musical scene at the end; the Nativity play in all its glory, is stupendous. Simply put, the songs are so catchy that I actually had to buy the soundtrack, which will be a neat from-leftfield addition to the usual hackneyed Christmas music selection. (Note to Americans: in general, the Brits have it all over us in the Xmas music department. They have a yearly holiday music competition, and some pretty great songs have come out of it. Whenever I play my Brit Xmas CDs, everyone is instantly singing along to songs they've heard for the first time, and asking me who it is.) The staging of the kids and the way they handled modernizing the nativity theme for the 7-13 set was really quite amazing. For instance, all of the kids want to please their parents who've never had a chance at anything grest, and want to play the Mary or Joseph role. So, the teacher devises a way in which they ALL can individually be Mary and Joseph in the staging of one of the central musical numbers. Great costumes and sets, and I liked that the kids were NOT too-cutesy, been-there-done-that Hollywood kid pros, as would have been the case in anything American. (One reviewer expressed relief in being able to take her pre-teen girl to see something fun that didn't feature Hanna Montana and shopping: too true!) Some of the kids really can sing, and the ones who are just OK make up for it in pure enjoyment of what they're doing. As others have mentioned, I LOVED the little sprite who played Bob, with his funny strong country accent and rock-n-roll attitude. I imagine I'll be seeing more of that kid; he's too cute and full of a natural energy to slip through the cracks.