‘NATIVITY!’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Paul Maddens’ School Nativity
It’s amazing ‘Nativity!’ got three sequels and a musical stage play after its release in 2009!
The ‘Nativity’ film series is an intriguing set of UK Christmas films. I wouldn’t like to say that these films are for everybody, but there’s a certain appeal to them for audiences when it comes to talking about them at Christmas time. It can be argued that audiences rate them more highly than critics. 😐
In the transition from December 2017 into January 2018, I watched the ‘Nativity’ family film series on DVD. At the time, it was a trilogy of films. Now it’s become a ‘quadrilogy’ with the fourth film ‘Nativity Rocks!’ later released in November 2018. The four films do tend to vary in terms of quality.
How did I get to see these ‘Nativity’ films, you may ask? Well, my best mate from school Stephen gave me ‘Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger!’ on DVD for Christmas 2017. It was because the film had David Tennant in it. Stephen knew of my love of ‘Doctor Who’ and that I liked David Tennant’s Doctor. 🙂
He thought I’d like ‘Nativity 2’ with David Tennant in it. And indeed I did. After Christmas that year, when my parents and I did some shopping in town, I decided to purchase the other two ‘Nativity’ films in the series. This is so I could start afresh and watch the first three ‘Nativity’ movies in a row. 🙂
How did I find all three ‘Nativity’ movies? Well, err…they were pretty fun and festive as they should be. The ‘Nativity’ films are all directed by Debbie Isitt. She also wrote the screenplays for the ‘Nativity’ movies and contributed some of the music and songs that featured in the films themselves.
The films also have spectacular stellar casts featuring celebrity actors well-known to the public. I’ve seen some of these celebrity actors in other films. It was pretty exciting to watch these films and see actors I recognised from other things appearing in them. But do the four films stand the test of time?
Let’s take a look at them in turn, shall we? The first film called ‘Nativity!’ stars Martin Freeman as Mr. Paul Maddens, a primary school teacher at St. Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School in Coventry. The film was released in November 2009. Amazing it wasn’t December these films were released. 😀
The film also stars Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins, Alan Carr, Ricky Tomlinson, Ashley Jensen and Pam Ferris. The film focuses on Martin Freeman as Paul Maddens’ journey of being in charge of the school Nativity at St. Bernadette’s, which he doesn’t want to handle. But things go out of hand in this.
As Paul receives a new teaching assistant in Marc Wootton as man-child Mr. Poppy, he finds himself up against stiff competition with former friend Jason Watkins as Gordon Shakespeare. Paul Maddens lies to Shakespeare that his ex-girlfriend from Hollywood is coming over to see his school Nativity. 😮
More than that, Mr. Maddens says to Mr. Shakespeare that the school Nativity will be made into a film. This Mr. Poppy eavesdrops on and believes what Paul Maddens said was the truth. As the school expects to go up higher in the world of Hollywood, Paul Maddens’ lies become bigger ones. 😐
It’s interesting how this film was made from watching the behind-the-scenes material on DVD. The film is a family comedy, but it also involves a lot of improvising on part of the school children performing. Oh yeah! A lot of the school children featured in ‘Nativity!’ are actual school children. 😐
It must have been a challenge for Debbie Isitt and her team to get the best performances out of the children playing their characters in the movie. Sometimes it works to great effect, sometimes it doesn’t. It often depends on whether you like that kind of improvised acting or not in the films here.
Me personally, I’m on the fence about it. Don’t get me wrong, the children ‘acting’ in this movie are decent enough and they clearly give out a lot of talent and promise whether it’d be acting, dancing or singing. But sometimes the performances of the children can be off-key and it can often be silly. 😐
Sometimes there are often rude moments in the film and Mr. Poppy’s antics in the film don’t help. It gets on Paul Maddens’ nerves when he’s trying to maintain control in his class. It also makes me wonder whether the dignity of the Nativity story performed by the children is dignified in the movie.
It was nice to see Martin Freeman in this film. For me, Martin Freeman played Bilbo Baggins in ‘The Hobbit’ film trilogy by filmmaker Peter Jackson. He also played Dr. John Watson in the BBC TV series ‘Sherlock’ with Benedict Cumberbatch. He did ‘Nativity!’ before doing ‘Sherlock’ and ‘The Hobbit’! 🙂
Martin Freeman is very funny in this movie as well as a great actor. Sometimes he can get very annoyed with Mr. Poppy’s antics, often losing his temper and sounding very much like a school teacher. But he can have good moments when he’s encouraging the kids to not doubt themselves. 🙂
I found the scene where Paul Maddens encouraged a little girl to not be afraid very good in the film. There’s even a ‘deleted scene’ of a similar nature (which you can see on the DVD) where Mr. Maddens is comforting a little boy. I liked how Paul reflecting over losing his former girlfriend gets touched on.
Marc Wootton as Desmond Poppy, Paul Maddens’ teaching assistant is a hard one to judge. He’s the nephew of Mrs. Bevan, the headmistress of St. Bernadette’s school and he comes across as very immature. Now the idea of a child-like classroom assistant could be a good idea featured in the film.
Mr. Poppy does serve a purpose in helping Paul Maddens out of his depression and getting to love Christmas again as well as get his former girlfriend back whilst they and the children rehearse the Nativity. But very often, Mr. Poppy can come across as pretty annoying and often childish at times. 😐
It makes me wonder how Mr. Poppy could have ended up being a teaching assistant in the first place and why his aunt agreed to let him become one. Surely a teaching assistant would have a degree? Judging by Poppy’s character I guess that he faked the documents to become a teaching assistant.
Jason Watkins as Gordon Shakespeare is an interesting character. He can come across as the villain, being a private primary school teacher himself and a long-time rival of Paul Maddens’. But he does have layers to his character. It’s nice how Jason Watkins balances the good and bad of his character.
Incidentally, I’ve seen Jason Watkins in the short-lived BBC4 comedy-drama series ‘Dirk Gently’. He was also in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Nightmare In Silver’ with Matt Smith. I’ve even seen him in an episode of ‘Call the Midwife’. Jason Watkins would appear in two more films of the ‘Nativity‘ series.
Ashley Jensen plays Jennifer Lore, who was Paul’s former girlfriend who went on to get fame in Hollywood. I would like hear Ashley Jensen do a voice for 2019’s ‘Lady and the Tramp’. Jennifer’s character used to the heart and soul of Paul Maddens’ life as she helped him to love Christmas itself. 🙂
Sadly, for whatever reason, Jennifer left Paul to become a star or an executive producer in Hollywood. Only thing is, she ended up being a Hollywood secretary. It’s interesting Paul discovered that when he and two school kids went off to America to see Jennifer, persuading her to come back.
Pam Ferris stars as Mrs. Patricia Bevan, the headmistress of St. Bernadette’s Primary School. I’ve seen Pam Ferris play another headmistress in the form of Miss Trunchbull in ‘Matilda’. Compared to her formidable, intimidating performance as the Trunchbull, she’s much nicer as Mrs. Bevan here. 😀
She also did a ‘Doctor Who’ Big Finish audio story called ‘The Eternal Summer’ with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton, and is well-known nowadays for playing Sister Evangelina in ‘Call the Midwife’. Her scenes in this film are very sweet, although I think her ‘chocolate fountain’ moments were too much.
The film also features Alan Carr as Patrick Burns, a critic. I can’t say much about Alan Carr as I don’t often see the comedy shows he does. But I enjoyed him as the critic in this movie when he interacts with Martin Freeman and Jason Watkins. He tends to eat a lot of sandwiches whenever I see him. 😀
Ricky Tomlinson stars as the Mayor in this movie. Again, I can’t say much about him as this must be the only time I’ve seen him in something film-related. But the Mayor character is fascinating when he’s supporting the Hollywood-promised Nativity play of St. Bernadette’s right up to the hilt in this. 🙂
The cast also includes Clarke Peters as Mr. Parker, a Hollywood director and Jennifer’s boss during her time in Hollywood. There’s also Geoffrey Hutchings as Father Tom and Rosie Cavaliero as Miss Rye. There’s also the late John Sessions and there’s Phyllis Logan as Mr. and Mrs. Lore, Jennifer’s parents. 😀
The DVD special features are as follows. There’s a ‘sing-a-long’ section containing three songs including ‘Sparkle & Shine’, ‘She’s the Brightest Star’ and ‘Nazareth’. There’s also the ‘Nativity! Advent Calendar!’, a making-of featurette, interviews with the cast and crew, deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer for the movie.
I enjoyed ‘Nativity!’ very much. I wouldn’t say it was my particular cup of tea, but I enjoyed the story featured in the first film of the ‘Nativity’ series. It was fast-paced and interesting to see with Hollywood involved and Martin Freeman delivers a great performance playing a teacher with kids. 😀
After this film however, things would change regarding the set-up of the ‘Nativity’ film series. With its next three sequels, the cast would change with its leading star taken over by someone else. It’s also incredible to think that a ‘Nativity!’ stage musical based on the first film would be made in 2017.
‘Nativity!’ rating – 7/10
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