“It’s best to think of ‘The Nativity Story’ as a Hollywood version of the kind of Christmas production some of the ‘Peanuts’ kids put on in ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas.’ This is not meant as a criticism. Quite the contrary.”
A.O Scott in The New York Times.
At the Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan wasn’t as positive.
“Hardwicke, whose work includes the fake-transgressive ‘Thirteen’ and ‘Lords of Dogtown,’ has made a super-earnest Classics Illustrated version of the Nativity story, a cinematic Bible class that flatters the chosen but has little to offer anyone who is not already a believer.”