‘Black Nativity’ Review

Jacob Latimore as “Langston,” Angela Bassett as “Aretha Cobbs,” Jennifer Hudson as “Naima” and Forest Whitaker as “Reverend Cornell Cobbs” in BLACK NATIVITY.

When assessing the merits of a film, there are two lines one can take. Some films are to be judged on the strength of their technical prowess, in the quality of their narrative, on the cohesiveness of the cast, and on the stylistic choices employed by the director. Certainly, this is a valid way to rate a film, and in truth, it is probably the approach that I take most often in my analyses. However, it is also acceptable, and in some cases even preferred, to assess a film purely on the emotional responses it seeks to draw from its intended audience. In a lot of ways, my mind and my heart are at odds on how to rate the Kasi Lemmons holiday film Black Nativity.

Black Nativity is a love-letter reinterpretation of Langston Hughes’ classic musical, which itself is a retelling of the Nativity story using an all-black cast. Whereas the musical focuses primarily on a combination of faith, rousing gospel music, and African-inspired percussion, Kasi Lemmons’ film adaptation strives to blend these elements with a more modern tale filled with family melodrama and themes of poverty and crime. The attempt is incredibly ambitious, but the delivery is muddled and clunky, falling well short of what the director likely intended.