Though it’s only part scripted, with a lot of ad lib free reign on the part of the cast and kids involved, Nativity manages to be an effortlessly improvised classic! It very nearly passed us by when it hit the big screen in 2009, as the plan had been to take the nephews and nieces to see Where the Wild Things Are just after Christmas for the eldest niece’s birthday, but they all rebelled against it and managed to nudge us in the direction of the Nativity instead. It turned out to be a good call, because it hadn’t really picked up a great deal of publicity ahead of the release, so we probably wouldn’t have seen it’s part-scripted, part-improvised genius if it hadn’t been for the little mutineers.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the film is that a lot of the lines in the film were made up on the spot during filming. With the majority of the cast being children, this must have been both a struggle and a lot of fun for the grown up actors, including Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies) as the love lost, moody teacher of the class putting on the nativity and the brilliant Marc Wootton as the idiot/genius teacher’s assistant who has some of the best dialogue of the film (most of them probably improvised).
With a solid performance from Ricky Tomlinson as the Lord Mayor and some good acting moments from Ashley Jensen (The Lobster), of Extras fame, as Freeman’s long lost girlfriend and Pam Ferris (Ma Larkin) as the Head Teacher, Nativity is the best Christmas film we’ve seen since A Nightmare Before Christmas.
The only downside is that it has caught onto the populist comedy concept of glorifying chavs as the voice of the working class and vilifying intelligence as the voice of the elite. It doesn’t really leave much room for people that grew up in poverty with half an ounce of brains and doesn’t really do all that much to inspire kids to get into anything other than singing dancing and acting. However, it’s mostly a lot of fun and delivers a lot of laughs from what was undoubtedly a very small budget.
Nativity film review: 3.8/5
Nativity movie stills:
Ashley Jensen play’s Martin Freeman’s long lost love interest superbly and Marc Wootton improvises for all his worth.
