Beth: "Everything is falling apart."
Grace: "I'm not sure they were ever together."
And so it goes with an annual Christmas pageant, whose machinations would rival a small military exercise. It's the film adaptation of the child's book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. And it is just as the title suggests, at least for me who thinks this is the best Christmas film in years.
Comedy and drama march together as Grace (Judy Greer) runs the annual pageant now that its usual director has been incapacitated. Grace is a good person exemplifying the best of Christian virtue, yet her values will be tested to the max with the arrival of the Herdman children, motherless ruffians notorious for being ornery and at times downright destructive.
Although Grace is inclined to accept the clan for major roles, in the absence of other volunteers, most of the town, even her children, are exclusionary of the infamous family. Thus begins the dominant motif of the subtle faith-based dramedy, the acceptance of those not like us.
As Grace uses her people and drama skills to pull off the pageant, so, too, do others see the value of listening to critics of the status quo as the Herdman's are. More destructive than anything else is their challenges to conventional wisdom, for instance, the account of the Three Wisemen delivering gifts wholly unsuited to an impoverished family. The answer of delivering a ham is perfect and indicative of the riches the Herdman's give to the clueless town in the form of vigorous opposition to the outdated norms of the Bible.
I hope I have persuaded you to try director Dallas Jenkins' The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. My tastes run from It's a Wonderful Life to Bad Santa and not faith-based films in general. Yet, I have been impressed by the quality of such Angel Productions as Sound of Freedom, Cabrini, and Bonhoeffer and now the Kingdom Story Company's Best Christmas. I'm open to new experiences.
Happy Holidays.
