3 out of 5

Director: Debbie Isitt

Completely harmless kids fare that tosses in some healthy reality to make it a dash above average. Nativity! is the story of grade school teacher Paul, who sloughs his way through teaching a drama class after losing his energy for the business and christmas holiday with a run of bad luck in his past: that his first produced play (a nativity play) was a bomb, that the love of his life moved to America to be a producer, and that his close friends became a celebrated private school drama teacher with five star reviews every year. When he is coerced to direct this years nativity play for his school, things get out of hand when he boasts to the wrong person that Hollywood is coming to town to film his play, and soon enough the whole town is expecting their children to be actors and stars. Completely predictable in its plotting, Nativity, as mentioned, interjects reality here and there, preventing the movie from simply being wish fulfillment. This sense of honesty, along with the nicely-honed humor (theres nothing scatalogical or base here, all humor is situational or dialogue) makes it an enjoyable romp as, admittedly, does the musical at the end, which is executed well and believably.