Nativity!

Sticking with the seasonal theme, Nativity! was actually the fourth of the films I saw today. However, it was by far the best.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Primary teacher Mr Maddens (Martin Freeman) drops a clanger when he lies and says that Hollywood producers will be coming to see his nativity play… then has to live up to the lie.

It’s a simple basis for a comedy which throws in some cute kids, a bit of romance, a spiralling story, a bad guy and a Christmas theme. Heck, it sounds really weak when you think about it.

But I really, really loved it.

I think this could be for reasons in addition to the acting and story. I’m a student teacher – secondary though with hopes of doing primary also. I love kids. I think British comedy films are currently riding on an all-time high.

All of these combined to have me alternately giggling and near tears depending on what was happening on the screen. The basic story is so simple that it’s incredibly plausible. It only takes the tiniest suspension of belief to think “hang on, that could so easily happen”. Up to a point, at least.

The casting is superb. Aside from Freeman (who I can genuinely picture being an incredible teacher if he’s actually got that manner with kids), Marc Wootton is annoying yet loveable as the somewhat childlike teaching assistant, Mr Poppy. However, their performances are brushed aside by the simply fantastic children.

What makes them so good is the fact that they’re not perfect. They’re not the “look at us, we’re amazing and can do anything absolutely perfectly while looking so cute we’d make you sick” kids you expect to see in American films. These children look like a couple of classes of bog standard British primary school children. That is perfect.

Nativity! has the same feel-good factor at the end as such films as The Boat That Rocked and Still Crazy. In addition to both it’s got some adorable children who aren’t sickly sweet. Just cute. The story’s well-paced, it’s funny (laugh-out-loud in places), sad, moving, uplifting and simply just great entertainment.

I now want to teach primary more than ever before. If you’ve ever considered being  a primary school teacher, watching this film could be enough to make you start filling in the PGDE / PGCE application forms.

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