Movie info via Rotten Tomatoes:
A young woman carrying an unimaginable responsibility. A young man torn between love and honor. A jealous king who will stop at nothing to keep his crown. This live-action Christmas musical adventure for the entire family weaves classic Christmas melodies with humor, faith and new pop songs in a retelling of the greatest story ever told, the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus. A unique new entry into the collection of holiday classic movies, this epic Christmas musical is unlike any before it.
Review:
Journey to Bethlehem is a musical Nativity story that combines element of Disney and Glee.
Mary is crafted in the Disney Princess mold- an independent late teen not willing to follow what her parents laid out for her. Here she wants to be a teacher and doesn’t want to be chattel for Joseph. She even gets some power ballads about independence and wishing to strike out on her own. There is even a donkey sidekick, non speaking of course.
The real interesting twist is that Mary’s journey parallels what the New Testament says will happen to Jesus. The temptations, the struggles, the doubts— she experiences them all before and for Jesus. It seems the learning is passed down through a pre-birth osmosis. Jesus is perfect and sinless because he has absorbed in his inner core all of Mary’s experience both good and bad.
The director Adam Anders, along with his his wife Nikki, were the power couple who wrote most of the music and songs for the television series Glee. Nikki writes the lyrics, Adam the music. The tunes are big, bold, throaty and heavily pop inspired. The classics like “Silent Night” and “O Come All Ye Faithful” get some nice R&B styling with an occasional Doo-Wop background. It works much better than it sounds.
Journey doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sometimes the clever erudition sneaks through. The three Magi are both Three Stooges in their slouchings toward Bethlehem. They call themselves “wise guys” in one funny ditty- that gets at the essence of what Magi were historically seen as in Jesus’ era- a bit of conmen, criminals, scientists and scholars.
I found the moral dilemma of Mary’s immaculate conception to be true to life and pretty moving. How Joseph and his family deal with the reality starts with denial, but moves to faith when the only answer is that the impossible miracle that they had wished for has happened.
Journey gets by on its winning combination of sly comedy and earnest emoting from a fully game cast. Among the delights is Antonio Banderas as Herod delivering the show stopping power ballad “Good to Be King”. Fiona Paloma and Milo Mannheim as Mary and Joseph, fully take advantage of their star making moments.
Journey to Bethlehem gets a 3.5/5 or a B+. It’s streaming on Netflix.
Credits:
Directed by
Written by
- Adam Anders
- Peter Barsocchini
Produced by
- Adam Anders
- Brandt Andersen
- Steve Barnett
- Ryan Busse
- Stephen Meinen
- Alan Powell
Starring
- Fiona Palomo
- Milo Manheim
- Lecrae
- Joel Smallbone
- Antonio Banderas
Cinematography
Xavi Giménez
Edited by
Sabrina Plisco
Music by
- Adam Anders
- Nikki Anders
- Peer Åström
Production
companies
- Affirm Films
- Monarch Media
Distributed by
Release date
- November 10, 2023(United States)
Running time
98 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$6 million
Leave a Reply