It may not be the greatest movie ever made, but it is the greatest story ever told.
This organic retelling of the backstory to Jesus? birth works to a large extent because it focuses on the revered characters as relatable struggling mortals. They are treated with due respect but not a distancing awe.
In a script adapted from the New Testament by Mike Rich (“The Rookie”), we see that the human parents of the prophet of one of the world?s greatest religions lived in harsh poverty. They were constricted by rigid community standards and helpless under the thumb of an arbitrary government and religious establishment ? personified by the greedy authoritarian King Herod (Ciaran Hinds). As it turns out, Mary, sympathetically played by “Whale Rider?s” Oscar-nominated New Zealander Keisha Castle-Hughes, might be seen as an archetypal restless teenager. She finds herself uncomfortable with her parents? choices for her, impregnated under less-than-ideal circumstances and fixed up with a guy (Oscar Isaac as Joseph) toward whom she feels some ambivalence. Oscar-nominated Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (“House of Sand and Fog”) plays Elizabeth, Mary?s mentor and future mother of John the Baptist.
We all know how it turns out, of course. But today?s version makes this portion of the Christian Gospel into a touching love story about Mary?s inner journey to accept her mystical destiny and the emerging bond between her and her new husband as they are forced to journey from their home in Nazareth to one very famous barn in Bethlehem. ?
