After crashing onto the indie scene with the dynamic and controversial growing-pains chronicle Thirteen, director Catherine Hardwicke shows much more decorum for The Nativity Story. Unfortunately her retelling of the Christmas story is rather too reverential, full of po-faced performances from a cast that includes Keisha Castle-Hughes as the Virgin Mary. Considering that Mary is a young teenager at the time she falls miraculously pregnant, she has surprisingly little awe or curiosity about her predicament (qualities that Castle-Hughes exuded in abundance in coming-of-age yarn Whale Rider). It doesn't help that Hardwicke treats every extraordinary incident as a given, shying away from too much speculation about Mary's innermost fears. She portrays icons instead of human beings, while Ciaran Hinds comes across like a pantomime villain in the role of King Herod. None of this will concern devout Christians, but anyone hoping for more than an RE lesson will be disappointed.

Mary and Joseph make the hard journey to Bethlehem for a blessed event in this retelling of the Nativity story. This meticulously researched and visually lush adaptation of the biblical tale follows the pair on their arduous path to their arrival in a small village, where they find shelter in a quiet manger and Jesus is born.