There is a reason certain Christmas movies stand the test of time and return year after year, and also a reason the Hallmark-style factory-made product is easily forgotten. It’s a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story are pure examples of the former. They are perennials, classics.
In fact, that sweetly nostalgic 1983 A Christmas Story is what I thought of most when watching the latest entry in the genre, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which may not be the best Christmas movie ever, but it grabs your heart and makes you smile. It also is that increasingly rare so-called “faith based” film that doesn’t try to hit you on the head with a sermon. Instead, it manages to be thoroughly entertaining family fare that also uncovers the true, not commercial, meaning of the holiday. I wouldn’t be surprised if this Lionsgate release becomes a perennial itself.
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Based on Barbara Robinson’s 1972 book, Best Christmas Pageant Ever previously has been adapted as a play and also a little-remembered hourlong TV special with Loretta Swit in 1983. I am not sure why it has taken half a century for a proper feature film version but we finally are here.
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Set in a generic time period, director Dallas Jenkins and screenwriters Ryan Swanson and Platte F. Clark & Darin McDaniel have structured it all as a memory play. Beth (the older version played by Lauren Graham) is recounting her experience one long-ago yuletide when her mother, Grace (a sublime Judy Greer), volunteered to take over the small town’s annual Christmas pageant after the director broke her legs — the 75th one, which is an event that never changes, ever if its on-stage participants do.
As we get into the story, we meet the younger Beth, who, like most of the kids in the town, is bullied by a rambunctious, pretty much hated family of kids known as the Herdmans (think The Bad News Bears). “The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world,” Beth exclaims. They live in a ramshackle house off the beaten path, largely unsupervised by absentee parents. Leading the pack is Imogene (a wonderful Beatrice Schneider) who manages to keep things and her siblings together while being one of the biggest culprits in their devious acts. When Beth’s bespectacled brother Charlie (Sebastain Billingsley-Rodriguez) signals that the church hands out free food at the annual pageant auditions and rehearsals, the Herdmans see an opportunity. Not only do they get the free eats, they hijack the whole process and manage to get themselves all the good roles in the pageant, including the lead of Mary, mother of Jesus, for the very un-Mary–like Imogene.
Chaos and disgust ensues as Grace, a person who lives up to her name, tries to understand them along with daughter Beth and give these unfortunate kids the kind of opportunity life never has afforded them. Along the way, the real spirit of Christmas and Christianity emerges, albeit with plenty of complications and lots of mayhem, laughs and heartbreak along the way.
With sharp production design, lovely cinematography and a smart approach that never talks down to its audience, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever also is superbly well cast, especially with the irresistible Herdmans including Schneider, who is excellent, and true scene-stealer Kynlee Heiman, the youngest of the brood, sporting no front teeth and a, uh, memorable rebel yell. You won’t soon forget this brazen bunch. Greer, and comedian Pete Holmes as her supportive husband Bob, are perfect anchors, and Wright hits all the right notes as well. Yes, it is an idealized vision of life presented here, but if you want the Christmas spirit a little early, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is the ticket.
Kingdom Story Company, the faith-based production outfit behind other intelligent examples of the genre including I Can Only Imagine, Ordinary Angels and Jesus Revolution, has another winner on its hands. Producers are Kevin Downes, Jon Erwin, Andrew Erwin, Darin McDaniel, Chet Thomas, Daryl Lefever.
Title: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release date: November 8, 2024
Director: Dallas Jenkins
Screenwriters: Ryan Swanson and Platte F. Clark & Darin McDaniel
Cast: Judy Green, Pete Holmes, Molly Belle Wright, Lauren Graham, Beatrice Schneider, Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez, Matthew Lamb, Essek Moore, Ewan Matthys Wood, Mason Nelligan, Kynlee Heiman, Elizabeth Tabish, Vanessa Benavente
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hr 39 mins