“Black Nativity” is based on the popular, 50-year-old off-Broadway play written by Langston Hughes. The screen version has been modernized and energized with the help of spiritual songs by some of the music world’s brightest stars.
Troubled teenager Langston (played by Jacob Latimore) lives with his mother Naima (Grammy and Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson) in Baltimore. However, because of financial problems, they are about to get evicted from their home. Naima decides to send Langston to spend the holidays with his grandparents in NYC while she tries to sort everything out.
The Reverend Cornell Cobbs (Forest Whitaker) and his wife Aretha (Angela Bassett) run a Baptist Church in Harlem. They’ve never met their grandson and haven’t seen Naima since she became pregnant with him as a 15-year-old. The family has some deep secrets that are keeping them apart, and Langston wants answers – including who his real father is and why he abandoned him and his mother. And it’s Christmastime, with everyone celebrating of the birth of a very special baby, and when something magical is always possible.
It was much easier to get away with “Black Nativity”‘s skimpy story on stage. This is a well-intentioned film but it just doesn’t amount to much. There’s very little drama, too many coincidences and you don’t have to be a Wise Man to predict the ending. And after “Les Miserables” last year, I don’t think I’ll be able to enjoy another movie musical that relies on dubbing instead of live-singing. The execution, particularly with Hudson, is very poor. But you can understand why director Kasi Lemmons (“Talk to Me”) decided not to have Hudson sing live to film: her screaming style would have broken much of the equipment.
As for the acting, the performances are pretty solid, though Whitaker’s noticeably high-pitched accent is bothersome. Tyrese Gibson has a few good scenes as a pawn shop worker, and I was expecting Mary J. Blige to have a much bigger role. She and the rest of the cast do collaborate on several holiday gospel tunes, some more effective than others.
Much like many Broadway shows, the second half of “Black Nativity” is stronger than the first. Lemmons is able to dig deeper into the crux of the story and get more creative with the storytelling and symbolism during a Christmas Eve “Black Nativity” pageant the Reverend holds in his church.
“Black Nativity” is rated PG for some language, thematic material, and a scene of peril. It’s appropriate for kids 12 and up. While it does modernize the original nativity story someone needed to modernize this 50-year old script. Instead, we’re left with a film that lacks any true spirit of the season and that probably would have fared better as a made-for-TV movie.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “Black Nativity” gets a C.