This Christmas, primary school teacher Paul Maddens is charged with producing the school's nativity play. Competing against the posh rival school for the honour of the best-reviewed show in town, the stakes are raised when Paul idly boasts that his ex-girlfriend Jennifer, a Hollywood Producer, is coming to see his show to turn it into a film. The only trouble is, they haven't spoken in years. With eccentric assistant Mr Poppy fuelling his 'little white lie', Maddens suddenly finds himself a local celebrity and at the centre of quarrelling parents and over-excited children caught up in fame and fortune. Maddens' only hope is to get back in touch with Jennifer and lure Hollywood to town so that everybody's Christmas wishes come true. This British Christmas flick has always had a special place in my heart. I can recall watching it year in, year out, every Christmas time without fail, as it would become a tradition with my sister. This year was no exception as it continues to hold up, delivering a hilarious, light-hearted family fun caper set during the festive season. My favourite aspect of this film was the character of Paul Maddens, played by Martin Freeman, who spends the majority of the film having near panic attacks under the constant worsening of his 'small' lie. I found myself spending most of the film chuckling at his performance. I particularly loved his bewildered looks at the children's bizarre auditions to his furious expressions at Mr Poppy's childish and peculiar behaviour that constantly favours him with the students. His outbursts, however, are fantastic and my favoured scenes. They are almost always brought on by Mr Poppy, played by Marc Wootton who constantly pushes for unrealistic expectations for the nativity like, for example, using a 'death slide'. The two characters are instant highlights as their contrasting characteristics play off of one another perfectly, creating some of the most stupendous laughs and an unlikely friendship as the movie progresses. Mr Poppy is certainly an idiot but one of the more enjoyable kinds as his far-stretched ideas are so fun and quite simply ridiculous. Some of his antics include taking children on a school trip to see a woman giving birth to see how Jesus was born and stealing farm animals to be used in their show. He is bonkers yet hysterical. He is a big help with setting up the Nativity by making Mr Madden's songs more enjoyable for the students and a lot more upbeat. The songs have to be another favourite part of mine as they are extremely catchy. The lyrics are very well-written and equally clever. They are of course made to be cool and, in some of the songs, modern-like for the kids, but even then, they are funny and entertaining, not at all cringe-worthy. I adore the song 'She's the Brightest Star' it's too good and I cannot get enough of its groovy energy. The rest of the other songs are also notable being, 'Sparkle & Shine', 'Nazareth', 'Good News', 'One Look' and 'One Night, One Moment'. What I was most worried about with this 'modernised' take with singing and jokes there would be less focus on the significance of the Nativity story, however, they pay full respect to it in a beautiful way, especially when depicting Jesus' birth. The actual stars of the flick are naturally the students of the school St Bernadette's who are not in the least bit annoying. I thought they were very tolerable and equally delightful. Standing out above all else in this feature, nevertheless, is the rival posh school teacher and old friend to Mr Maddens, Gordon Shakespeare. He steals the show and every scene he is in with his over-the-top performance. He really gets into it and makes for an amusing 'bad guy' who tries to outdo Madden's show with the horrifying King Herod-themed play and expose him as a liar about Hollywood coming. It is interesting to note that this film was essentially improvised. There was no script to follow just plans for the scenes and the actors would act it out, which is crazy but surprisingly turned out phenomenally. Overall, Nativity! is a fabulous comedy for the whole family to enjoy this Christmas, with plenty of catchy songs, amusing characters and moments to laugh at. Also, check out the follow-up Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger! (2012).
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