Two good movies

Last night we watched The Nativity Story, which I actually liked more than I thought I would. Surprisingly, it didn’t extrapolate much, and what it did add was not jarring. True, it was a bit underacted and underdramatic, but I think it worked well, because, after all, it was not a showy affair. This is the story of a very humble birth, and the quiet tone made it feel real and not contrived. The biblical events were followed, there was nothing objectionable, and it was an interesting movie overall. I especially appreciated the portrayal of Joseph, a quiet good man who gives to others before himself.

The other movie we saw recently was Amazing Grace, which we watched on its last day in theaters. That was definitely worth the ticket price! Unlike most movies I see, there was nothing I would have changed about this one. There was no bad actor, no line that felt out of place, no spots that were too slow, a good use of music, and a good beginning and ending. Since we watch so many British movies, this movie was sort of like a game of “Place That Actor”, where there were only two or three people in the whole movie that we did not recognize from somewhere. In fact, the two actors who played Fanny and Edmund in the old BBC Mansfield Park played a husband and wife in Amazing Grace. It was a wonderful movie, with only a couple bad words to mar it, and an inspiring story.