Black Nativity

[Ms Thrifty]

"A street-wise teen from Baltimore who has been raised by a single mother travels to New York City to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged relatives, where he embarks on a surprising and inspirational journey."

Having seen the trailer, I succumbed to this, though it wasn't the heart-warming if soft-centred seasonal film I'd hoped, and which some reviews led me to expect - though admittedly they varied between 2 and 3 stars, so not great. It was an interesting coincidence to see Forest Whitaker playing a hard-line preacher so soon after his more subservient role in The Butler, but Angela Bassett hadn't much to do and as for Jennifer Hudson, whilst she wasn't (I sincerely hope) responsible for what she had to sing, she didn't half make the most awful, screeching, bawling, caterwauling noise!

Edit: wish I had seen The Best Man Holiday instead....

[Ms Thrifty]

So presumably no-one else here has seen this, or if so, doesn't care to admit it...!

[missunique]

I was hoping this was going to be good I was going to take my girls to see this as when they broke up from school. But my friend saw this last night and big fans of the 3 stars was highly disappointed.

[rawsalsa]

I've seen it and although I have to admit that I was rather tired when I went in, I fell asleep several times during this. This was despite the fact that I generally love Jennifer Hudson's singing & there were some great actors in the film including Angela Bassett (fantastic actress but please don't sing again ) & Forest Whittaker, so really I'm not even sure I can fully comment as I think I missed at least 30% of proceedings .
Based on what I saw whilst I was awake: Some nice songs but a very simple screenplay.
Overall a rather basic formulaic Christmas film. 5/10

[Ms Thrifty]

Yes, I couldn't really recommend this on any basis, i.e. not for the singing, any seasonal quality, etc. You could probably say it's inoffensive and safe for younger children on that basis, but not that entertaining and the religious message is pretty heavy-handed.

[RAZORBACK]

Went to see this yesterday and thought it was okay, much like 'Sunshine On Leith' this had the potential to be quite a nice little drama but unfortunately the songs kept getting in the way of allowing that to happen.

Overall it did just enough to get a 6/10 from me but like above I wouldn't recommend it to others...

[Ms Thrifty]

Interesting comparison, RAZORBACK! And one which had not occurred to me, but now you've mentioned it, for me, Sunshine On Leith was far superior, with characters who seemed more genuinely fleshed out and credible, whereas they were more stereotypical in this: the stern, unforgiving Victorian-style father; the courageous single mother, struggling to support herself and her child; the rebellious teen, etc.

And as for the music.... whilst I wasn't familiar with the work of the Proclaimers, and it isn't exactly to my taste, both it and the way it was used seemed to fit into Sunshine On Leith (though I'd still have preferred a straightforward drama), whereas the endless wailing in this soon outstayed its welcome.

[RAZORBACK]

I think the biggest problem I had with 'Sunshine On Leith' is that the story didn't seamlessly fit with the songs (which by themselves I actually like) so it ended up feeling quite forced.

'Black Nativity' didn't have that problem however the songs were distracting in a different way as they were firstly quite dull (excluding the final song performed during the end credits) & secondly there was no rhythm to their regularity. We'd get one song straight after another and then nothing for a large chunk of time (which felt quite weird for a musical) consequently making it difficult to get drawn in to the story...