Saturday 17 December 2011

Nativity (5 Stars)

I bought this film for one reason only. I read that it had been made in Coventry, which is just a few miles from where I live. I didn't expect it to be any good. It's a Christmas film. I don't celebrate Christmas, and I don't even feel sentimental about it. I try to stay indoors and ignore the madness until it passes. but the film knocked me off my feet. It was nothing like I expected.

Paul goes to drama school, together with his girlfriend Jenny and his best friend Gordon. None of them feel talented enough to become actors, so Paul and Gordon become teachers. Jenny leaves Paul to get a job in Hollywood. Paul teaches in a Catholic primary school, while Gordon gets a job in an elite private school, both in Coventry. Their friendship turns to hatred, because Gordon produces successful nativity plays, while Paul's plays are flops, torn apart by the local critics. Paul thinks he can turn things around by asking Jenny to get Hollywood involvement in this year's nativity play.

A simple enough story, but everything about it just "clicks". Martin Freeman is excellent throughout as primary school teacher Paul Maddens. "Those who can't act become teachers. Those who can't teach become primary teachers". Not true in his case, he's a very good actor. I hadn't noticed him before, but he'll receive more attention as Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming Hobbit films. The young children who starred were heartwarmingly sweet. Yes, I'm a softy, I always loved children and wanted my own. When my own children were young they were the centre of my life. Now they're older I still love them, but I miss having small children around me. Maybe I'll be a grandfather one day.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this review, I've also enjoyed this movie for various reasons very much, though I had about the same feelings as you. Oddly the movie has just been released in Germany, but all I seem to get is rather negative reviews about it being dull and predictable - maybe it's the German dubbing. Anyway thinking about it I begin to love the ending more and more, not that "Hollywood" like a deus ex machina finally arrives, but that the conflict had already been resolved at this point and that "Hollywood" though being nice, really wasn't needed. And then of course there is the symbolism that regretfully escapes most German reviewers I'm afraid to say, the happy ending including everybody in this monument commemorating the most evil in man and its impact on a whole city, Coventry cathedral.

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  2. Thank you, Equinox, for your thoughtful comment. Usually German dubbing is high quality, as I commented in my review of Nikita. The problem is more likely to be different tastes, especially where humour is involved. For example, "Austin Powers" was a big hit in America and England, but flopped in Germany because the German audience didn't understand the jokes. You're absolutely right about the Hollywood arrival not being necessary for the nativity play's success; it just gave a happy ending to the love affair. I missed the Coventry Cathedral symbolism myself, but you're right, thanks for pointing it out.

    I'm glad you enjoyed my review, and I hope I can welcome you as a regular reader. If you've checked my other posts you'll see that I often review German films, though I use the English title if the film was released internationally. English is my mother tongue, but I lived most of my adult life in Germany and have a great love for German cinema, in the widest possible sense.

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