The Nativity Story

(Rated PG. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. New Line Cinema. Running time: 1 hour, 41 min.)

Director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Mike Rich have given us a rich view of the humanity of Mary and Joseph during their days of betrothal and journey to Bethlehem. But then their filmmakers’ instincts seem to have been overcome by the pietistic sweetness that has grown up around the scenes of the birth and stable visitors.

Too bad. I would like to recommend the film without reservations. But just as Mel Gibson strayed too far over the boundary of what is acceptable violence in The Passion of the Christ, the makers of The Nativity Story plunge too deeply into the well of Hallmark Card sentimentality.

This is not the fault of the excellent cast, headed by the gifted star of Whale Rider, Keisha Castle-Hughes. She looks like the lively teenager that Mary must have been when her father announces that she is betrothed to Joseph. Mary is not keen on the arrangement, but accepts her father's decision. She is surprised but equally accepting of the angel's announcement that she is to bear a fatherless (humanly speaking) child. Her happiest moments are the time she spends with her cousin Elizabeth, played by Shoreh Aghdashloo. The two mothers-to-be bond and spend the summer happily together, until Mary leaves for home to face the inevitable disapproval of all when they see her swollen belly.

We all know the story well, but may not have seen it so humanly portrayed before this film. As the eyes of Joseph and other family members widen when Mary alights from the cart bringing her home from Elizabeth’s, it becomes a funny moment despite the seriousness of her predicament. We see the dangers of the trip to Bethlehem via Jerusalem, both for the holy pair and for the three magi who travel from Persia to behold the child who is to become the king of the Jews. These three also bring some humor to the story: one of them at first refuses to go because he would have to leave behind all his accustomed comforts. The other two start out, but are soon joined by the reluctant third wise man, his first face-saving words to them being "You forgot the maps."

The filmmakers follow the theory that the guiding star was a conjunction of three planets. As the magi draw closer, the "star" becomes brighter as the planets converge. By the time the shepherds and the wise men draw near to the stable, it shines such a bright beam of light down on Mary and the Child that no one could miss it. I found myself wondering why the whole town was not out looking. This is the beginning of the abandonment of good, naturalistic filmmaking and the descent to the level of church pageants, complete with the magi arriving on the same night as the shepherds. The first four-fifths or so of the film are so good that what should be the climax comes as a let down.

Still, this is a film well worth seeing, especially for church youth groups and families. (One caution: the Massacre of the Innocents, though not bloodily graphic, is definitely too much for preschool and older impressionable children.)

—Edward McNulty

Basking in sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine

(Rated R, Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Fox Searchlight Films. Running time: 1 hour 41 min)

The directors of this late-summer hit are unusual in that they are husband and wife, and their delightful film is even more unusual. You are not likely to see a more dysfunctional family on screen, yet one which manages somehow (by the grace of God, people once would have said) to pull together in a crisis and be a blessing to one another. The six-member family all have one or more problems that would make any one of them a pain to be around—except perhaps for one.

Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) is the father, so absorbed by his dream of becoming a motivational speaker that his every word seems like a peppy cliché from his Nine Steps to Success program. Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) is barely keeping herself and her motley crew of a family together. Her teenaged son by a former marriage, Dwayne (Paul Dano), has taken a vow of silence until he can achieve his dream of entering the Air Force Academy to become a jet pilot. It is just as well, as the notes he writes are filled with nasty jibes, such as "I hate everyone," perhaps inspired by his constant reading of Nietszhe. When his newly arrived Uncle Frank (Steve Carell) asks "Everyone?" meaning himself too, Frank writes, "Yes."

Sheryl has just picked her brother up at the hospital, where he had been admitted after a suicide attempt. Seven year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) watches beauty pageants on television to see how she should act if she achieves her dream of entering one for children. Rounding out the family is Grandpa (Alan Arkin), who keeps his drug cache in his fanny pack. It was his drug habit that resulted in his being expelled from a seniors' residence.

When at the last minute Olive is told that she has won the local Little Miss Sunshine contest, the family sets aside all other plans and sets forth from Albuquerque to take her to the national pageant in Redondo Beach, Calif., with just a few days to meet the registration deadline. And thus begins one of the wackiest and yet poignant road trips to be seen on a screen. Their ancient VW bus develops clutch trouble, and the local mechanic, unable to obtain a new one the same day, tells Richard that beyond first gear they do not need a clutch: by pushing the bus and then jumping in (and by parking on a hill when possible), they can turn over the motor. The sight of all six pushing the old heap, then Richard jumping into the driver's seat, followed, one by one, the other members never fails to elicit laughs—just as a sad event along the way evokes a tear or two.

LMS is rich in moments of grace and never played for broad humor. How even Dwayne comes through for the family, and how all support Olive, despite their wish that she not participate in the tacky pageant, is both heart-warming and funny. The film offers ample opportunity not just for entertainment but also for reflection upon and discussion of values and what constitutes a family.

—Edward McNulty

Go Ahead ... Laugh

Thou Shalt Laugh, directed by Phil Cooke; produced by Jonathan Bock and Hunt Lowry. Warner Home Video, $19.97. Running time: 93 minutes.

Too often Christians are pictured in Hollywood films as humorless party spoilers who laugh only at the thought of sinners going to you-know-where. This new video of a program of seven Christian comedians performing at a large California church could help to change that picture.

Hosted by Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond, Thou Shalt Laugh is a joy to behold—and no commandment need be invoked to elicit laughter. Just try to keep it in when Michael Jr. relates his answer to a question he says was put to him, "Are you pro gay?" "No, I'm no amateur gay, either. I didn't know they had a league." This is as risqué as anything said by the seven stand-up comics during the fast-paced evening, and although spoken in what seems to have been a mega-church auditorium, everyone seemed to appreciate the joke.

The other performers include Taylor Mason, Thor Ramsey, Teresa Roberts Logan, Gilbert Esquivel, Joby Saad, and Jeff Allen. The latter would have hit it off with Mark Twain, remarking, "I believe that teenagers are God's revenge on mankind!” (an observation that many a harassed parent might concur with at times). This and most of the other observations are derived not from church life, as one might expect (though there is church-related humor), but from the family and everyday lives of the performers.

Thor Ramsey speaks of his family (everyone will laugh knowingly at his description of the difficulties of trying to remove his daughter's doll from its package!) and a trip to North Dakota, a state so cold that he suggests it be depopulated and turned into a truly "state penitentiary" for all those being held in our prisons. He reports that when a police car stopped a speeder, it was so cold that neither the cop nor the driver would get out of their cars.

Taylor Mason effectively uses puppets to put his witty observations across, while Teresa Roberts Logan has fun with such hymns as "Amazing Grace" by singing the words to the tune of Gilligan's Island and the old Coke song.

For those wanting to laugh without blushing at occasional smut employed by comics used to performing in night clubs, this is a tailor-made disk, one that can be played even with the most prim and proper acquaintance present. Heaton introduces the show as one made up of all Christians, which raises the question, "Is there really such a thing as Christian comedy, or is there only comedy based on wry observations of the human condition?” A family or church group could have some fun discussing this after watching and listening to Thou Shalt Laugh.

—Edward McNulty