On December 1st, 2006, one of the most underrated Christmas movies of all-time was released, and if you have never had a chance or made the time to watch "The Nativity Story" you should make this the year. I've noticed that it is playing a few times in the coming days.
The movie features a starring performance by Keisha Castle-Hughes, the young Australian actress who was just 16 years old at the time of filming.
She delivers a commanding yet understated performance as Mary, the mother of Jesus, in a manner that anyone familiar with her story would find credible.
Guatemalan actor Oscar Isaac takes on the hurt skeptic-turned strong and loyal supporting partner Joseph role well here.
The strongest male acting performance is turned in by Irish actor Ciaran Hinds, familiar to many from his starring role as Caesar in the HBO epic series 'Rome'. Hinds gives perhaps the finest performance of Herod to ever grace the silver screen.
Brought to life here by 'Twilight' director Catherine Hardwicke, 'The Nativity Story' is, as always, all about the story itself.
As one of the film's taglines tells it, the story is about "a message foretold in the heavens...a prophecy that would threaten an empire...a miracle that would change the world."
There is nothing overly dramatic about that tagline. It is the simple truth.
No matter what your view in your own life towards Christianity in particular or religion in general, there is no valid way to argue the fact that the life and death of Jesus Christ and the message that he delivered has changed and shaped the entire world over the ensuing two millenia.
This film and the whole of the Nativity story covers that period in the life of Mary and Joseph from the time of their engagement on through to the birth of their child.
