Mary obediently accepted God's will, as did Joseph. The Magi, the shepherds, the peasants -- all who beheld the Child Jesus -- believed. Thus in the movie we see Joseph take Mary on a donkey to Bethlehem. She has a baby. Shepherds and kings arrive with awe. Without a religious background, it might seem too saccharine to excite the taste buds of your average popcorn-chomping cineplex citizen.
The makers of "The Nativity Story" have included action and (sanitized) violence in the story because they were present, too. Thus we watch the armored goons of Herod on horseback executing the terrible command to slaughter the firstborn sons in Bethlehem under the age of two in the futile attempt to foil the plans of God, while the Herod character chews the scenery with dead-eyed menace. Still, it seems a bit forced, the resignation to the reality that today's moviemaker must find some way to "entertain" today's moviegoer in this age of bombastic sound effects and computerized whiz-bangery.
But at its heart, this is a gentle, serene, beautiful story about the creation of the Holy Family -- how Mary quietly accepted that which logically could not be understand; how, facing a life as outcasts once their community in Nazareth learned Mary was pregnant before marriage, Joseph took Mary on the long, arduous trip to Bethlehem; and how, contrary to all human expectation, the King of Kings chose birth in the most humble of settings, the animal's manger.
"The Nativity Story" is part of a promising trend in Hollywood: pleasing the religious segment of the marketplace. Fox has created a new FoxFaith line. Small films made by Christian hands -- from the football film "Facing the Giants" to "One Night With the King," about the biblical story of Esther -- are making noticeable profits in limited release.
Time and Newsweek go a little overboard with cute headlines like "Hurray for Holy-wood," but that's fine. Nor can we expect that Tinseltown will forego the appeal of sleaze at Christmas or any other season. More stupid "Christmas" movies that have nothing to do either with the Christmas story or the Christmas spirit will appear. It's all the more reason to savor "The Nativity Story" now, while you can.
New Line deserves a cheer for making this movie, just as the public needs to be reminded of that which the ACLU would rather it forget.