'Journey to Bethlehem' Review

Although well-intentioned, this film's bizarre choices muddle the transcendence of the Greatest Story Ever Told. Demand better Christian art.

Picture, if you will, Disney Channel’s East High as an evangelical Christian school and Miss Darbus as a charismatic drama teacher putting on the annual Christmas pageant, with Troy and Gabriella playing a flirtatious version of Mary and Joseph. This image sums up the tone of Affirm Films’ Journey to Bethlehem, a strangely flat holiday affair that showcases the Nativity Story, but told with anachronistic pop songs and buckets of cheeky humor.

The High School Musical comparison is apt since the screenplay was penned by Peter Barsocchini, who wrote the original High School Musical trilogy. Not breaking from his formula, he shifts the oft told tale of our Savior’s birth and turns the focus toward the meet-cute between Mary and Joseph, who must overcome the relationship hurdles of an arranged marriage, made more complicated by Mary’s new role as the Mother of God. This is an interesting angle since Mary and Joseph’s betrothal is ripe for dramatic possibilities, and the blossoming relationship soon turns tense when Mary delivers the message given to her by the angel Gabriel (played by Christian rapper Lecrae, in an amusing Annunciation scene where he blessedly does not rap).

While the basic ingredients of a Disney channel romcom are not offensive per se, one cannot help asking why first time director Adam Anders chose this angle to tell the story, since the entire focus on Jesus’ birth feels second place to Mary and Joseph’s relationship issues. Much has already been made in Catholic circles about the romance between Mary and Joseph as bordering on blasphemous. Mary’s perpetual virginity is not a belief held in all Christian circles, and since this film was made by evangelical Protestants, I cannot fault them entirely. But for Catholics and other Christians who do believe in the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother, Mary and Joseph’s romantic kiss will raise eyebrows. 

Along with the romance, the script establishes Mary as a rebellious spirit who wants to be a teacher like her father before her, and wants nothing to do with an arranged marriage. Nothing really comes of this conflict, and it reads more as the director attempting to speak to contemporary non-believers. In a curious inverse of the Disney female empowerment trope, Mary realizes that God had a bigger plan for her, and by accepting the traditions laid out by her family, she finds God’s purpose in an unexpected way. I appreciate the movie’s pro-marriage sentiment, which speaks to the importance of two people willingly sacrificing for each other. Unfortunately, this attempt to make the story “relatable” to contemporary audiences removes the traditional view that Mary had perfect faith, and we spend a good deal of the movie with Mary in a state of questioning and doubt. 

Mary’s purity and faith are not the only parts of scripture that get pushed to the side. The film downplays all deeper theology in favor of silly antics and hammy song-and-dance numbers. Aimed at a family audience, I can see these bits being enjoyable for the 5-year-old set, but certainly not for anyone who finds God’s word transcendent. There is no mention of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary, no mention from Elizabeth that Mary is Blessed among women, and the list goes on. Perhaps it’s nitpicky to point out these absences, but there’s a noticeable carelessness to the storytelling. From a filmmaking perspective, the script fails at exposition, never establishing why these characters long for a Savior. It’s completely reliant on viewers’ knowledge of the story. To be fair, even many non-believers know the story already, but it does not excuse lazy writing. The curse of relatability means that we get to spend more time with Mary and Joseph’s awkward romance instead of reflecting on God becoming Man, before suddenly reverting back to the reason for the season. 

A certain VeggieTales energy pervades through most of the movie, and I was not opposed to this, especially considering the movie is aimed at kids and families. But there’s an art to comedy, and not everyone has this gift, including our poor screenwriter. Some of the jokes are so juvenile that I felt secondhand embarrassment for the actors delivering them. Antonio Banderas tries his hand at a comic villain with a ridiculously overblown performance as King Herod, and this casting was a draw at first. But his snarling and slurring comes off as an actor who was given little to no direction, and just threw everything against the wall hoping something would stick. He’s certainly entertaining to watch, though it’s hard to know where the intentional comedy blurs into the unintentional. 

I hate sounding like a Scrooge, and it brings me no pleasure to criticize a first-time director of a low-budget Christian movie. But when we view art, especially Christian art, it’s important to look at what art is made to do: entertain, inspire and educate. A case can be made that this movie is entertaining, for better or worse, and it could even be seen as inspirational in the brief moments acknowledging the divinity of Christ, uplifting the human spirit and elevating the mind to the transcendent. But as far as education goes, this will not give Catholic children any formative understanding of our history and tradition. In fact, it will likely only confuse them, and when there are far more entertaining and inspiring options available, it’s difficult to give this a thumbs up. I know a lot of well-intentioned believers who make the case that movies of this nature can plant a seed for a non-believer to discover the truths of the faith. For me, I feel confident in saying that most non-believers will find this movie unbearably corny and leave them questioning the taste of Christian cinema-goers. It’s my belief that Christian art has a responsibility to elevate the good, the true, and the beautiful, and that in reducing the Greatest Story Ever Told to a “relatable” romantic comedy, we risk minimizing the faith for the sake of trying to fit in with the world. There is a place for this type of lighthearted storytelling. There is a place for this type of pop music. There is a place for this type of lowbrow comedy. There is also a place for reverence, and a more reverent telling of the Incarnation would have been most welcome here.