Nativity! (2009)

Every family that celebrates christmas has a christmas film, and this one is my family’s. It can be easy to get stuck believing that your own christmas film is amazing; i’d heard so much love for the polar express over the years that i almost thought i must be watching some malicious parody when i saw the actual thing. But watching nativity with my friends convinced me that although by no means perfect, nativity is a very solid christmas film.

The plot is generic but has enough freshness to make it fun, and the semi-improvised nature gives it some uniqueness. There are several giant leaps of faith we must take when watching it, but it’s a christmas film, so that’s something i’m willing to overlook. Taken as a series of sketches with generally high quality jokes, interspersed with children being cute and silly, and a thin plot to tie it together, there’s very little that i would change. The music is good, Martin Freeman is an excellent straight man to Marc Wootton’s Mr Poppy, and the children do their own thing. One particularly nice thing is that although the children are the source of a lot of the comedy, it seldom feels like we are laughing at the children.

The main reason i like this film is because it is a blatantly christmas comedy, and it is a good one, unlike almost every other comedy film i’ve seen that is set at christmas. While there are a selection of pretty good serious christmas films, they don’t get me feeling christmassy like a decent comedy does. Definitely try Nativity!