The Nativity Story 2006

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: True believers deserve better than this lazy lump of holiday coal. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: The Nativity Story has a quiet sincerity to it that's sometimes quite moving, and sometimes just too quiet. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Nativity is a movie that may not take full advantage of its tale but doesn't betray it either. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: In their silken robes, the wise men -- like everyone else in The Nativity Story -- feel like participants in an elaborate high school production, one that looks authentic but has no soul. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) makes an appropriately soulful Mary, and the movie's most engaging scenes involve her mortified parents and mystified husband, Joseph (Oscar Isaac), trying to come to terms with her miraculous pregnancy. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: One of the incidental points of the film, particularly powerful, is that doing the right thing isn't easy, even in the face of divine assurance. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: We just haven't had too many films that concentrate on this story. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The proceedings come across as quite a bit less than the greatest story every told. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: ...a filmed Sunday-school lesson that favors a dry, by-the-Book approach over even a suggestion of dramatic interpretation. It's more Christmas pageant than movie. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: The Nativity Story becomes the anti-Passion, a movie that makes a statement against violence rather than exploiting it. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: At the very least, it's refreshing to see a holiday film that doesn't involve Tim Allen wearing 80 pounds of rubber padding. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This is not a chance to 'experience the most timeless of stories as you've never seen it before' but just the opposite: an opportunity, for those who want it, to encounter this story exactly the way it's almost always been told. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: It might not hook nonbelievers, but the choir might sing hosannas. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with preaching to the converted -- secular Hollywood does it all the time. But I confess I wish the movie had some of the passion of The Passion of the Christ. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's a rather lifeless re-telling of the Nativity, with greeting-card imagery and stiff performances. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: The movie itself is not a miracle. But it's working with pretty good material. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The Nativity Story is a film of tame picture-book sincerity, but that's not the same thing as devotion. The movie is too tepid to feel, or see, the light. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Hardwicke and her cast and crew do remind us that the birth of Jesus is one of the most lyrical and emotionally resonant stories in all of religious literature. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Don't expect a Caravaggio, but if your taste turns to Hallmark, this is a good bet -- a straight-up Nativity story as safe as death and taxes. Read more

Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News: For families looking for a Christmas outing, it should not disappoint. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: [The Nativity Story has] little to offer besides a pageant with TV-style melodramatic flourishes. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: While Mel Gibson's epic was a divisive film, it had a visceral impact the new movie lacks. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Dull and inert. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: This is the movie Mel Gibson should have made, a simple tale simply titled and sweetly told. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: For those who are not pulled to this movie for its religious slant, there's no reason to go. There's nothing here for a serious movie-goer. Despite the sizeable budget, this is little more than a glossy Christmas tract. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: I have to hand it to Hardwicke: I was a lot less bored by The Nativity Story than I feared I'd be. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The best of intentions and a 2,000-year-old heartbreaker of a story are not enough to make a compelling film. You need a point of view and something to say. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Bill Zwecker, Chicago Sun-Times: A refreshingly unadorned example of straightforward storytelling. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: The Nativity Story may prove just idiosyncratic enough to alienate the doctrinaire believers but not quite weird enough to appeal to revisionists, cultists or regular holiday moviegoers. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's not exactly the dullest story ever told, but it's certainly not the greatest. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Memories of dreary Sunday school classes come flooding back courtesy of The Nativity Story. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: The Nativity Story does only so much to enliven a drama that has been playing out in Sunday schools and on suburban lawns for centuries. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: This drab exercise in glum piety slumps where it should soar, sapping the story of its mystery and transcendence with an overriding sense of literality. Read more