Nativity!

Wednesday 25th November 2009

Dir. Debbie Isitt
Rating ***

Christmas comes but once a year and it is just the season for a family film filled with lies, deceit and heartbreak. Three years after her mild success with Confetti, British-born director Debbie Isitt introduces another comedic tale using her signature improv style and starring old pals Martin Freeman, Jason Watkins and Marc Wootton, but this time with Extras star Ashley Jenson and comedian Alan Carr, not to mention a classroom of kids.

Having given up a career as an underachieving actor, Mr Maddens (Martin Freeman) takes up his fallback job as a primary school teacher at the notoriously hopeless St. Bernadette’s state school. But after having received a biting review of his directorial debut in the school’s Nativity play and been dumped by his girlfriend (Ashley Jensen) on Christmas Eve, Maddens’ holiday spirit is diminished into one that resembles something of Scrooge. So when St. Bernadette’s’ headmistress (Pan Ferris) proposes that Maddens takes up his director’s hat once more for the last Nativity before her retirement, his initial response is of trepidation. But when he bumps into his old-time drama buddy and long-time rival Gordon Shakespeare (Jason Watkins), who is now also a primary school teacher, but at the posh Oakmoor private school up the road, his resentment gets the better of him and a small fib about his play being filmed for TV quickly spirals out of control and turns into a tangled mess concerning Hollywood, agents and the rights for a book. His only hope is to find a way to transform his lies into reality so as to avoid being arrested for fraud and, most importantly, disappointing his class.

Although Nativity! is refreshingly absent of over-the-top Christmas slapstick and delivers some truly comedic moments (specifically from Jason Watkins), Isitt’s hit-and-miss improv is demonstrated with the back-and-forth teetering between funny and not. Take Mr Poppy (Marc Wootton), Mr Maddens’ new teaching assistant hired to help with the production of the play. While his unruly, yet innocent, schoolboy antics are initially amusing, there are moments when they go from comical to downright odd. Nevertheless, the true stars of the film are the St. Bernadette’s schoolchildren, most of who are ordinary kids with little or no previous onscreen experience. As the film progresses, the Nativity production takes shape and culminates in a heart-warming show, centring on the true meaning of Christmas rather than its commerciality; and while there are some peculiar moments of comedic oddities, the film succeeds in delivering that fuzzy feeling this Yuletide.

PUBLISHED IN SCREEN JABBER