PremiumThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie review: A tale of hope and kindness and the taming of the Herdman siblings
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie review: When a group of delinquents take over the Christmas Nativity play and give it their own spin.
Last Updated: 08.17 PM, Dec 12, 2024
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie story: The Herdman siblings – all 6 of them, one worse than the other- find themselves the stars of the annual Christmas pageant (nativity play), after it is revealed to them that a trip to Church would mean getting to feast on the snack of their choice. Dubbed the worst children on the block, owing to absentee parents, the Herdman gang take up all the prime roles, unopposed.
It's a disaster in the making, or so think the townsfolk, given that the responsibility of directing the pageant falls on homemaker and mother of two Grace (Judy Greer), whose only earlier contribution was getting cookies for the congregation, and since the Herdman kids were expected to do something unpredictable and outrageous to ruin the play.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie review: It’s nearly Christmas and the season special movies headed to OTTs are all about hope, kindness, and faith. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, based on a 1972 Children’s book hinges on all three, as young Beth (Molly Belle Wright), hopes for a bunch of Christmas miracles, after the eldest of the Herdmans, Imogen (Beatrice Schneider), steals her necklace, and later, casts herself in the role of Mary in the nativity play.
Kindness is what Beth’s parents show the Herdmans in the run-up to the pageant, while also trying to understand their perspective on the birth of Christ, after they hear the story for the first time. And faith is what is instilled in every one by the end of the pageant.
A fan of the movies, Imogen is taken in by the idea of acting and ‘becoming someone else’, while also keeping up the Herdmans’ reputation as bullies and snatching the roles from regular cast members. Their interpretation of the Nativity is the highpoint of the story – irked by Herod’s actions that lead Joseph and a heavily-pregnant Mary to flee to Bethlehem; the innkeeper who failed to provide decent quarters for an expectant mother, and, eventually, baby Jesus, and the choice of gifts of the three wise men.
As much as the film is about how the Herdmans make the community see the Nativity play in a different light, it is also about letting people see what made them the way they are. For instance, when Imogen pats the doll of baby Jesus on the back, like she had to get her youngest sibling to burp, the hardships these kids endured finally dawns on the people. Eventually, the pageant, in its 75th year, becomes a big hit, just not how anyone had envisioned it.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever movie verdict: The film is sentimental and inspirational, but never overbearingly so; it's actually mildly heart-warming too. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a light watch and just right for the Yuletide sason.
The Best Christmas Pageant is currently available on TVOD on BookMyShow Stream.