I just watched The Nativity Story, which was last year's decidedly un-bloody Christmas response to The Passion.
It wasn't bad, although I have to admit (and probably agree with the professional movie critics) that the best parts of the film were definitely the seemingly ancillary matters rather than the story of Mary.
The role of Mary in the film didn't seem very well defined...which is perhaps why the actress never seemed to really draw a bead on the character (no rosary puns intended). Her initial conflict is that she just wants to be a normal kid growing up in a war-torn, occupied territory, until her parents have to ruin everything by trying to marry her off before she can be enslaved and raped by Roman soldiers.
I suppose the intent was to create some kind of dramatic conflict in Mary...who, as the Immaculate Conception, has to be pretty much one of the most difficult characters to generate dramatic conflict for.
How do you show a conflict of desires for a character who is not prone to the base temptations of sin?
It's a dilemma of narrative theory.
To me, it seems that the best bet is to try to create situations where the character has to choose the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods when no good seems apparent.
For instance, rather than making Mary tempted by her youth, the writers could have chosen to make her loyalty to her immediate family and its needs come into conflict with her betrothal to Joseph.
Or it could have been more a matter of choosing between a contemplative life and an active life.
We could have been shown how saying "yes" to God in the way He desired meant saying "no" to what we only thought God desired for us...rather than saying "no" to something we desire for ourselves. I almost would have preferred it if Mary were being courted by some zealot freedom fighter rival to Joseph (we do see her engage in a mild civil disturbance when she helps block a road as some revolutionaries escape from Romans). On the other hand, I suppose introducing such a character would have the unsettling effect of seeing an photograph of your mother with a prom date who is not your father.
I've seen reviews that criticized Mary's rambunctiousness as betraying her obedience...but I'm not sure I quite agree with that assessment. Everything in the film movies at such a fast clip, I don't know that I got that sense. It did seem, however, that she was never happy doing her parents will. Her home down is always dark and oppressive, whereas the Visitation comes off like a bright and sunny vacation hot-spot with nary a concern in the world. I've also read that Joseph steals the show, and I would be inclined to concur with this assessment. He's a far more interesting character, and he has a ready made dramatic conflict.
Herod, though probably not historically accurate at all, came off as believable...and was just disturbing enough that you were never quite sure if he really believed in the prophecy of the Messiah or just had practical concerns about the political ramifications of his people believing in the prophecy. He was also pretty creepy without being a cartoon caricature.
My favorite scenes by far, however, were the Magi. They really spoke to me as someone in academia: perfectly fine studying the texts and observing the stars, but not exactly enthusiastic about having to actually go anywhere or do anything in the real world (and this would have made a nice mirror if the writers had chosen to give Mary the contemplative/active life conflict). By far the least mimetic of the characters presented, they were nevertheless the most entertaining...and their reluctance made for a clever surprise.
I'm sure I'll start picking apart biblical inaccuracies in about an hour or so, but my immediate afterthoughts are mostly positive.
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