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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 348405" data-attributes="member: 23">Nativity! (2009) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F_-VCvZFCV5hI%2FTQ6LPQMoc0I%2FAAAAAAAAD3Y%2FpL9bQ1B9I-0%2Fs1600%2FNativity.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=f3f593aab0f6447b3e4401ac3d7e277e3c1397f740baca24e5166d0ba383a3b3&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 690px" /> I'm not sure what's come over me this year. Other than a biennial screening of the original Black Christmas or The Polar Express and, once in a blue moon, Gremlins, I'm not usually one for festive films at all. I've never watched Love Actually, Die Hard or National Lampoon's Christmas Thingy. Yet here I am watching two overtly Christmassy films in as many nights. It's a little curious that the film relies on almost identical imagery to that shown in Christmas With The Kranks: a pan across a street of homes all lit up for Christmas, with the protagonist's home in gloomy normality, sans any kind of Christmas glow-up. Again, there's a rather unpleasant implicit message that someone choosing not to go gaudy means that they're a sad creature, worthy of pity and ultimately abnormal, with the film's happy ending all hinging on whether or not he finds Christmas in his heart. Of course, it's an archetype that both Nativity! and Kranks have no doubt lifted from earlier works which may or may not include It's A Wonderful Life and How The Grinch Stole Christmas! to probably the main influence: Charles Dickens. Any of these works that are "inspired" by A Christmas Carol must hit certain beats: great loss leading to bitterness; someone showing them the error of their ways and what love and Christmas are really all about; being met with forgiveness by those affected by said bitterness, etc. etc. All are present and correct here, and worked into a story that's complex and original enough to make it feel fresh. The cast - like the film itself - is a Curate's egg. Martin Freeman gives a great performance (if you can overlook the abundance of throat-clearing-to-convey-awkwardness, which I chose to do). Pam Ferris is terrific as the school's slightly pushy headmistress.  Ashley Jensen and Alan Carr had just enough screen time (for me less is always more with these two) which meant I enjoyed their performances. Even Ricky Tomlinson has a couple of little scenes as the Mayor. Here's the bad news, though: this is a film which relies heavily on its characters being endearing and for me there were two key elements where I wasn't on board with this. First up are the kids: Precocious kids with missing front teeth may be adorable with a scene-stealing line here or there, or doing funny things in the background or whatever but I really didn't care for them taking so much screen time in the last act. I realise it's in the title, but I really didn't realise a good portion of the latter part of the film was going to show so much of the actual performance in what felt like real time. I haven't attended a school nativity since I was in one at the age of seven or eight, and watching this I realise that's with good reason. The other big fail for me was the teacher's aid character. Rather like the kids, his goofing round was endearing at first and could have remained so in small doses, but his stupidity was taken to ridiculous extremes that pushed him into one-dimensional American sitcom territory (think Joey from Friends at his most annoyingly pea-brained and you're on the right lines). I didn't find him particularly likeable and as his acts became more reckless he began to appear genuinely ill-intentioned. On the subject of extremes, the  trip to Hollywood - racing past the security guard at the gate and running round the lot to escape them - feels like it's been done a million times. It took this film out of its own reality and ultimately felt there was little point to it besides giving the actors and crew a holiday to entice them to sign on. These scenes would have been at least as effective if done over the phone. And here we are. When I added Nativity! to the queue, I also added the second and third films in the series. But now I see that the key character to appear in all three is the teacher's aid. Freeman - the lead character here - doesn't appear in any more, so I wonder if there's any point in continuing. Certainly I feel like I've seen more than enough of the kids and the man-child. I am curious enough to watch on to see how it's re-framed but, given the rule of diminishing returns, I can't help but wonder if continuing would be an act of pure masochism.</blockquote>

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